A new eco campaign launched on Tuesday dubbed ‘Drop it’ is urging consumers and businesses to drop plastic water bottles in favour of glass receptacles that can be refilled with in-house filtered tap water as a much safer alternative for the human body and the environment.

 

Plastic bottles leach toxins into human tissue and discarded plastics on land and in the oceans are decimating wildlife that eat non-biogradable plastics, says campaign organisers, Goumbook, a dedicated green not-for-profit organisation in the UAE.

 

Tatiana Antonelli, managing director of Goumbook, told reporters that 768.1 million water bottles were consumed in 2015 in the UAE, a country with one of the highest consumption rates of bottled water in the world.

 

In Dubai, alone, there are at least hundreds of different brands, some of which cost more than 1,000 times the price of regular tap water, she said.

 

Antonelli said her campaign wants individuals and companies to install a variety of filters on taps in homes and office towers to help people refill their glass bottles every day.

 

Members who sign up for the campaign, she said, can ask a ‘Drop it’ water consultant to visit and assess at no charge their home or company. Then a choice of different filter technologies can be selected by the user.

 

The ‘Drop It’ campaign will also donate 5 per cent of all corporate memberships to funding a water project under the Charity Water umbrella to bring safe, drinking water to global communities in developing nations. (Gulf News)