CLEANUP ARABIA’S STORY

Emirates Diving Association (EDA) has been running Cleanup Arabia since its inception in 1995, a voluntary campaign that annually cleans-up the UAE’s dive sites and beaches with up to 1,000 EDA Members, Partners and Sponsors working together, side by side.

The campaign is made up of EDA Members and stakeholders that participate in dive site and coastal clean-ups which help shape their consciousness concerning marine litter and saying no to single-use plastics!

INSPIRING CHANGE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE TOGETHER

• Marine litter is a problem for everyone! It affects us all, not just the coastal communities. We need to all take part and fix the problem together.
• Marine litter poses threats not only to the marine environment, but to human health, to the appearance of the coast, and to tourism.
• Plastic typically constitutes around 75% of all marine litter, and it is regarded as one of the most problematic materials because of its abundance, longevity, and the fact that larger plastics break down into ever smaller parts termed ‘microplastics’.
• Our ultimate goal as a people, is to prevent more litter from reaching the marine environment in the first place. We need to reduce, reuse and recycle when possible, and ban “Biodegradable” products.
• Biodegradable plastic, as defined in most of the world, requires specific conditions such as heat and soil-dwelling microbes and bacteria to fully biodegrade. Such conditions do not exist in many ocean environments, and therefore plastic that might otherwise be biodegradable in industrial composters, does not biodegrade once it enters the marine environment.
• Since 1995, EDA has reported 52,500kg of marine litter to the Ocean Conservancy through the Cleanup Arabia campaign.