DUBAI (MEMO/MEE) – Shocking statistics
released by the Executive Council of Dubai have revealed that 50 percent of camel deaths in the United Arab Emirates are caused by consumption of plastic bags.
The figures were announced as the country has introduced a policy limiting the use of single-use bags. A complete ban is to be implemented in two years, as the UAE seeks to confront its environmental issues.
According to a study carried out by the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in the 90s, one in two camels died as a result of swallowing plastic bags and choking. Last year, research found that hundreds of camels have died in the UAE due to plastic ingestion over the past decade. Of 30,000 camels analyzed since 2008 by Dubai’s Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, about 300 died because of polybezoars – lumps of indigestible material made of plastic.
This equated to about one in 100 camel deaths in the UAE due to the consumption of plastic waste left behind by humans, either camping or generally littering. It takes around 400 years for plastic bags to decompose and thousands of years to mitigate their impact on the environment.
The council also said that a record number of turtles, some 86 percent, have been found dead off the country’s shores, having consumed plastic materials. Last week, Fadi Yaghmour, a marine expert who has studied some 200 turtles for the region’s first research on the subject told AP that plastic clogs turtles’ intestinal tracts, can cause them to be malnourished or even starve to death.
Yaghmour and his team of researchers have published a new study in the Marine Pollution Bulletin and have found that 75 percent of all dead green turtles and 57 percent of all loggerhead turtles in the Emirate of Sharjah had eaten marine debris, which includes plastic bags and bottle caps.
“When the majority of sea turtles have plastics in their bodies, you know you have a significant problem,” Yaghmour said. “If there’s ever a time to care about turtles, it is now.”

UK, EU Plastic Waste Wreaking
Havoc on Turkey

Meanwhile, non-recyclable plastic waste exported illegally from the UK and Germany to Turkey has exposed the city of Adana to toxic chemicals that cause cancer and other diseases in locals, Greenpeace said in a new report this week.
The report, which was prepared by looking at samples taken from five plastic waste-burning sites in Adana last April, indicated the presence of a wide range of toxic chemicals, including human carcinogens, in ash, soil and water samples, many of which are known to be produced during the process of burning plastics. Some of the burning sites were in close proximity to agricultural fields.
Greenpeace revealed last year that Turkey received almost 40 percent of the UK’s plastic waste exports (209,642 tons) in 2020, nearly half of which was mixed plastic that is mostly non-recyclable.
The report found that EU member states also exported 20 times more plastic waste to Turkey in 2020 compared with 2016 - about 447,000 tons - making Turkey the largest export country for plastic waste from the EU.
Large amounts of plastic waste were found at 10 locations on the outskirts of Adana: these were dumped illegally in fields, near rivers, railway tracks and on the roadside, and were often on fire or had already been burned.