Egypt declares Sharm El Sheikh free from plastic bags

Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad has announced that Sharm El Sheikh city is free of single-use plastic bags, during a press conference on Saturday.

“This comes in light the national strategy to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags, which was adopted in 2021,” by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said Fouad.

She pointed out that this step was not insignificant as it needed many efforts to clarify consequences of this bags on marine life and the environment.

Fouad mentioned the strategies to reach this step were by organising awareness campaigns for citizens and distributing alternatives to plastic bags by another manufactured in fabric, which had distributed to the citizens for free.

During the conference, the minister added that more than 350,000 fabric bags have already been distributed in six weeks, as she aims to distribute about one million fabric bags before COP27.

The figures had reflected that each ton of plastic bags was equal to death of 3 tons of marine organisms, Fouad said in the conference.

The conference has attended by Alessandro Fracasiti, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Tobias Krause, deputy ambassador of the European Union to Egypt and representatives of the concerned authorities.

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