The Sustainable City to reduce single-use plastic consumption

Considered to be the first fully operational sustainable community in the Middle East, The Sustainable City has announced plans to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic by 90%.

The Sustainable City’s phase-out of single-use plastic – a significant environmental polluter with a lasting ecological footprint – will target plastic bags, straws, balloons, cutlery, soda and water bottles, and food packaging.

“While plastic is integral to lives, people often tend to forget that plastic pollution is also one of the most damaging to our ecosystem. The Sustainable City’s goal to reduce single-use plastic consumption by 90 percent by 2020 underlines our commitment to promoting a sustainable environment and reducing our ecological footprint to secure a greener and cleaner nature for future generations,” says Faris Saeed, CEO of Diamond Developers.

“We believe it’s important to act decisively – and now – to achieve our goals. By involving all our community members, this initiative supports the global efforts to combat climate change, the green vision of the UAE, and the Dubai Plan 2021. This will help avoid plastic waste pollution by inspiring behavioural change,” he adds.

The Sustainable City has already taken significant steps to reduce single-use plastic. The use of SUP is banned in the offices of Diamond Developers and The Sustainable City Visitor Centre, and the company has tasked its research division, SEE Institute, to assist the commercial outlets in the phase-out by refusing and replacing the most prevalent SUPs.

As part of the road map, the first milestone is to achieve the reduction in the use of SUPs by 50 percent in the coming three months (by September 1, 2019). This will accelerate the journey towards achieving the goal of a 90 percent reduction in SUP usage by January 1, 2020.