Lessons learned during a month-long environmental awareness campaign, organized by the Rotary Club of Salmaniya (RCS), will continue to encourage citizens and residents to tackle the plague of plastic pollution, GD Online reports.
The event has already paid dividends by encouraging people to continue with concrete steps towards environmental sustainability by using reusable water bottles and masks and dropping off collections of used drink containers at the Bahrain Association for Parents and Friends of the Disabled.
“Our club has organized plastic collection projects in the past but this is the first time we conducted a month-long awareness campaign with many social media users participating,” RCS president Faisal Juma told the GDN.
“During just the Eid holiday, we collected 20 large garbage bags worth of plastic bottles from just our own respective homes!”
The Green July initiative was split up into three stages. During the first phase, RCS members posted photos on social media of themselves using reusable water bottles, masks, and any other sustainable alternative materials, using the hashtag #GreenJulyRCS.
In the second stage, RCS members collected their plastic bottles during the recent Eid holidays instead of disposing of them.
“By showing people how much waste is generated in just one holiday, we hoped to make people more aware of their lifetime impact on the planet,” Mr. Juma added. “Also, the social media campaign demonstrated how many people take this cause seriously in Bahrain and it has inspired people to reduce their reliance on single-use plastics in the coming months.
“The campaign also highlighted the alternative materials to plastic that are environmentally-friendly and sustainable.”
In stage three, Osama Ramadhan dropped off the collected waste, on behalf of the team, at the Bahrain Association for Parents and Friends of the Disabled who will in turn sell them to a recycling facility and use the money to buy specialized wheelchairs.
In addition to Mr Juma, Seema Baqi, Reham Yusuf, Khalid Turk, Sebahat Isik, Yusuf Fakhro, Shaikh Abdulla Al Khalifa, Hasan Al Mansoor, Dr. Dhafer Alumran, Mohamed Salahuddin and Khalil Alobaidat participated in the campaign.
Cartoonist Hajr Al Fadhela designed the graphics for the campaign and a number of social media influencers promoted the initiative on their social media channels.
“I was very happy and proud to contribute to the project and collect four bags of plastic waste just during the Eid holiday,” said Dr Alumran.
“I believe that every citizen in Bahrain is responsible to support his country in a way that will reflect positively on his family and the future generations.”
To continue in their goal of building environmental sustainability, RCS has plans to conduct a beach clean-up after the summer and continue supporting a coral reef rehabilitation project.
