The Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) launched the “Waste Free Environment Day” campaign last year to signal the start of an annual event that raises awareness of the value of plastics. The initiative founded by the Plastics Committee of the GPCA aims at encouraging more responsible attitudes toward litter disposal.

This year’s campaign will take place on Thursday, Feb. 20, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jubail, Riyadh, Rabigh and Kuwait simultaneously.

Last year’s event saw a large number of volunteers from around the region join clean-up operations at several beaches and ports across the Gulf. The campaign was inaugurated in Dubai by Dr. Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahad, UAE Minister of Environment and Water, while simultaneous events took place in Abu Dhabi and in three locations here in the Kingdom. Volunteers from schools, local communities and diving clubs working with the GPCA and its member companies removed litter from the beaches and plastic waste for recycling was collected from the coastal areas.

Asma Braizat, the campaign representative in Dubai, said the campaign aims to increase both corporate and public awareness of the amount of plastic and other waste thrown away each year in the Gulf and to inspire both groups to reduce wastage and to recycle.

She said, “The campaign also aims to underscore the beauty of the Gulf environment and inspire corporations and members of the public to strive and ensure that the environment remains pristine. It also aims to encourage school students to stop littering, collect waste and recycle, and demonstrate the plastic industry’s dedication to waste reduction, and recycling.”

Jubail based-companies Advanced Petrochemical, Sadara, The National Industrialization Company (TASNEE), Sahra Petrochemical, Sipchem, Zamil ChemPlast, and Alrajhi holding are participating in the campaign.

Salamah Al-Dhafiri, the campaign representative in Jubail, said the campaign will start at 8 a.m. in front of Coral Beach Hotel in Jubail Albalad.

He said, “The campaign also aims to promote the ‘reuse, reduce, and recycle’ culture in the target groups. Reusing products that we think are useless can actually be of great value to others (one person’s trash is another’s treasure!)”

Al-Dhafiri said, “We target students and employees in Jubail to reduce or lessen the amount of waste by changing their habits, only buying what they need and refusing unwanted plastic such as plastic carrier bags.”

“The Waste Free Environment Day campaign team is always overjoyed to see old friends come together each year to be active, to clean up our beautiful environment and to have lots of fun while doing that,” he added.

The GPCA estimates that less than 10 percent of plastic is recycled in the Gulf.

Out of the 80 million tons of waste generated in the GCC each year, plastic waste is responsible for approximately 33 percent or 26 million tons.

The GPCA is a non-profit association serving its members with industry data and information resources.

It is the first such association to represent the interests of the petrochemicals and chemicals industries in the Arabian Gulf and it has brought a major dimension to its task by creating both a forum for discussion and a place where like-minded people can meet and share concepts and ideas.

Since its inception in March 2006, the GPCA has earned the enviable reputation of steering the regional industries toward a whole new level of cooperation and raising the standard in terms of common ground interests.