A BIG FEAT INDEED!

Qatar is ranked 4th among the world’s top 10 offenders of ecology, preceded only by UAE, USA and Kuwait.

This conclusion is based on the calculation of the country’s Ecological Footprint – a resource management tool that describes the impact a person and his lifestyle leave on the environment.

By extension the ecological footprint measures how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it disposes under prevailing technology. Measuring the ecological footprint enables us to assess the extent by which we overshoot the earth’s resources, which helps us manage these resources with caution.

According to current estimates on average every person has an ecological footprint of 2.3 hectares. However the available productive area on earth for each of us is only 1.9 hectares. This makes Ecological Footprint over 23% larger than what the planet can regenerate. In other words, it now takes more than one year and two months for the Earth to regenerate what we use in a single year.

Dismally three out of the 10 countries on the top ten ecological offenders list are from the GCC; evidently the GCC would make it to the highest regional offenders list as well.

LURKING IN QATAR’S MALLS…..

Here in Qatar, grocery store baggers don't bother to ask. They shove the bread in one plastic bag as they randomly reach for a few more, each for the apples; the pack of soda cans and the re-packed promotional chips packets. Without a doubt the meats, the mineral water and the toiletries will get one too.

Worldwide, it’s estimated that four billion plastic bags end up in landfills each year – enough to make a disposable bag chain to circle the earth 63 times.

Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade – disintegrating into small toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways.

This is not all, scores of marine mammals like sea turtles die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

No estimates are available on Qatar’s consumption of plastic bags. Granted Doha’s mall culture, and the lack of alternatives, placing it at a ‘high’ end would not be an overestimation. Globally however the annual consumption rate has toppled 1 million bags per minute.

On the brighter side of the spectrum the number of countries restricting and banning plastic bags is rising.

In Ireland the government imposed an extremely successful plastic bag tax – Plas Tax – in 2002 reducing consumption by 90%.

In Switzerland supermarkets are required to charge $.15 to $.20 per paper bag.

Both the Taiwanese and Tanzanian governments have banned plastic bags.In Dhaka - Bangladesh the use of polythene bags were brought to a complete halt when it was found to be the cause of 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged two-thirds of the country.

Here in Qatar the end of the disposable bag domination is still in the periphery of the environmental movement. Laudably Carrefour Supermarkets and Jarir Book Store have both introduced reusable bags. While this trend is yet to catch on, sadly the act of carrying disposable bags is yet to enter the realm of the ‘unacceptable’ here in Qatar.

THE CYCLE OF RECYCLING

When DAGOC’s (Doha Asian Games Organising Committee) Environmental Cleaning and Waste Management Programme announced that it would take several measures to green the Asian Games; the move was applauded. True to its’ word, the Kahlifa Stadium was cluttered with over 7,000 recycle bins – yellow for plastic, blue for paper and food, and brown bins for organic waste.

This was not all, Orry (the Games’ friendly mascot) in his adventure book, teaches his two friends – Gehaidy, the camel and Shaheen, the falcon – about the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Coming from the historic Asian Games the message was loud and clear – the time to start recycling is now!

Two years later, has the eco-momentum created by the Games, entrenched the science and art of recycling into Qatar’s environmental infrastructure? Regional and global trends leave no doubt that a permanent and structured recycling programme still remains a void in Qatar – waiting to be filled.

Dubai has announced the establishment of a fully integrated waste management and recycling park -- Dubai Recycling Park in the Dubai Industrial City. The Dubai Recycling Park will not only handle the in-flow of waste from the Dubai Industrial City, but will also handle waste from across the Emirates.

Global and regional trends indicate a general preference for a nationwide distribution of recycling centres. Evidently to make way for easy access by the public most of who are inclined to trash those generally ‘throw-away’ products.

Similarly a glance into the international recycling scene displays a tendency to place recycling centres dedicated to recycling of specific product, for example, cell phones and rechargeable batteries (rbrc.org), floppy disks and videotapes (greendisk.com), Junk mail (greendimes.com) business clothing (dressforsucess.org) etc.