Comment: Switch on the plastic savings – Gulf Digital News

Comment: Switch on the plastic savings – Gulf Digital News

My octogenarian mother who is visiting us is quite shocked at the way Bahrain uses plastic with nary a thought for the future.

Coming from a culture and a generation that placed conservation at the heart of their life choices, she tries to make the most of situations where she is forced to use it, re-using plastic milk pouches to segregate and dispose kitchen wet waste, refusing double packaging of fruit and veg and even finding ways to scrape off labels and use plastic oil jars as planters.

So, when we went shopping and bought vegetables in plastic bags to put into our big reusable shopping bag (brownie point there!), she was puzzled. Why would we continue to contribute to landfill waste when we have taken the trouble to bring along a roomy reusable bag?

My daughters in the UK are very eco-conscious too, using only green cleaning materials and always carrying their water bottles to work or even to the mall so that they need not buy plastic water bottles.

So what made my generation skip the nuances of the green movement? In Bahrain, I think it is a combination of indifference from the public and lack of muscle for environmental rules.

And, the