The following 2 photos were taken on a small beach on the wild, beautiful and largely uninhabited East Coast of the Musendam Peninsular during this trip. To be honest I dont think I’ve quite captured just how many bottles there were. It has highlighted to me the sheer scale of the problem caused by plastic bottles thrown away.
As you can see the highwater mark is just covered in hundreds of bottles.
What can be done?
Well I can do 2 things- a) highlight the problem to others and b) I’m going to do my best to not buy any more plastic bottles.
(b) is going to be quite hard. Here in the UAE its damn hot a lot of the time and this means I need to drink a lot of water. I spend a lot of time driving because of work and the standard 1.5l disposable water bottle at just a couple of dirhams is the easiest way to stay hydrated.
So I’m going to start using the drinking water supplied in the large recyclable containers and aim to keep my selection of water bottles filled and in the fridge ready to use.
Ian Ganderton 
Hi Ian
Admittedly, the best option is not to use in the first place but the main issue is disposal.
It is possible, even in the UAE, to dispose of waste responsibly and of course chucking used bottles overboard or onto the ground is irresponsible.
However, plastic bottles can be recycled. There is a recycling bin for cans, tins, bottles and paper right next to Spinneys, Al Hamra. Just collect these items separately and every now and then drop them off in the recycling bin – easy!
Remember: Reduce – Reuse – Recycle
Stuart
Stuart,
Thanks for commenting, much appriciated. I know you have certain ‘awareness’ in this region on this topic so I’m going to ask a question you might know the answer to:
The concern is that the recycle bins at Spinney’s don’t actually get recycled, just dumped. Do you know if they get taken to a recycling facility and dealt with appropriately?
Ian
It may surprise you to know that there is a recycling facility in RAK, just behind the Towerlinks Golf Club. However I think the bin at Spinneys might be run by Union Paper Mills in Dubai who are very much into recycling – especially paper.
The simple answer is yes, material dropped into a recycling bin is almost certainly recycled. Putting a bin out just for show or publicity is pretty pointless.
Ha ha, yep it has surprised me, but its good to know.
It has been documented that, in a very limited number of cases, recycling bins have been put out in the UK as a marketing exercise and the contents just dumped in landfill because it was too costly to process and that comment has been made about the ones here. Good to know it is likely to be being dealt with properly. Again thanks for the info, good to know.
Ian