Goodbye single-use plastic, hello dear eco-consciousness

Dubai Airports (DXB) announced its pledge to ban single-use plastics from consumer spaces from January 1, 2020.

It's probably the best news to break in a long, long time, and it's happening as we speak (or as you read this). It isn't breaking news, actually - the thing with breaking news is that it is, mostly, of an unpleasant nature. It's either fire or accident or crime or a stock market crash or some such exigency. For news junkies, the economy showing incremental improvements of a quarter of a percentage point in the previous month or more people choosing to take the public transport and leave their cars at home in a particular month isn't compelling enough to qualify as breaking news.
So, the fact that the UAE, including authorities, residents, and commercial entities, have sort of joined forces to counter one of the biggest scourges of our times - single-use plastic - may not sound glamorous or charming for them to run three bulletins a day on the subject, but it is something that will have far-reaching and very positive impact on our collective future.
Every drop counts, they say, and yesterday, it was a bucket-load of good news when it comes to the UAE's drive against single-use plastic. For, the world's busiest airport, Dubai Airports (DXB), announced its pledge to ban single-use plastics from consumer spaces from January 1, 2020. In one fell swoop, that would eliminate the need for around 32 tonnes of single-use plastic bottles and bottle caps a year. And that's just bottles and caps - add some of the other, bigger single-use plastic offenders like plastic straws, plastic cups and caps, and plastic bags, and you know why the environment and our future generations will be thankful for these steps.
And it isn't just DXB that has taken the right steps here in the UAE. Several of the country's hotel chains, restaurants, theatres, groceries, supermarkets and, most heartening, individuals and households have done the same with single-use plastics: junked them. Having run a #KTforGood campaign against the use of plastic in March this year - besides highlighting such positive stories at every available opportunity - we at Khaleej Times are proud that we are playing a small but important role in this drive. And we hope that we continue to bring you such positive breaking news and that you don't have to wait long to see that affirmatively screaming headline that says 'The UAE goes plastic-free'.