Related: Hundreds of UAE camels have died from eating plastic bags, study shows
A portable toilet, children's toys and mountains of plastic were among the items collected by off-road drivers during a desert clean-up in Sharjah.
A convoy of 23 vehicles from the Offroaders.ae group drove into the Al Badayer region on Saturday to clean up piles of household and industrial waste scattered across the desert.
Camel bones photographed by the group offered a stark indication of the damage done to wildlife that eat the discarded plastic, an increasingly common problem in the UAE.
The amount of rubbish has become steadily worse in the three years I have been driving into the desert
While the flesh and carcass of the animal had long since decomposed, plastic remains were visible in what would have been the camel's stomach.
Russian Pavel Kashirskiy, an off-road marshal at the Offroaders driving club, was shocked.
“This is a very popular destination with tourists, so we expected to have some rubbish, but nowhere near the volume we actually found,” he said.
“It was enough to fill a container of 10 cubic metres, so substantial.”
The group collected more than a hundred industrial sacks of rubbish from five square kilometres of desert in just four hours.
The club's drivers make weekly trips into the desert to tackle the challenge of driving in the sand, but the increase in rubbish turned their attention to staging a clean-up.
“This idea is part of our commitment to the desert,” said Mr Kashirskiy, who lives in Dubai Marina and works in the oil and gas industry.
“It is a resource we enjoy, so we need to keep it clean and preserve it for the future.
“I was very surprised with what we found. There was a portable toilet, spark plugs, baby toys and all kinds of household waste. It was shocking to see what people throw out.
“The amount of rubbish has become steadily worse in the three years I have been driving into the desert.
“We find plastic bottles on the top of sand dunes in remote areas that are hard to reach. Now, we are also seeing a lot more face masks.
“Just a few weeks ago, I photographed the remains of a camel, and there was plastic in its stomach.”
Since 2008, extensive research on deaths of camels has been completed by Dubai’s Central Veterinary Research Laboratory.
In the 30,000 camels checked since 2008, about 300 died as a result of ingesting plastic.
A study published in the Journal of Arid Environments reported masses made of plastic bags, bottle tops, rope and plastic bottles were often found undigested in the stomachs of dead camels.
Lead researcher, laboratory director Dr Ulrich Wernery, was unsurprised by the findings of the off-road drivers and called for action.
“We first saw this issue in camels some 20 years ago,” he said. “It is not just an issue for them, but also gazelles and ostriches.
“Sheep, goats and marine animals are also vulnerable to plastic and it has increased every year.”
While plastic is increasingly found in accessible desert areas, it is also appearing in more remote regions, said Dr Werney.
“Along the E611 in particular, there is rubbish and plastic everywhere in the desert, particularly where people camp,” he said.
"Plastic can travel 100km on the wind from the hotspots.
“It is the responsibility of people to keep the desert clean. Often they do not realise the damage they are doing, or just don’t care.
“Education is the most important thing.
“There has been talk of banning single use plastic, but that has not yet happened.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
RESULTS
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
AGUERO'S PREMIER LEAGUE RECORD
Apps: 186
Goals: 127
Assists: 31
Wins: 117
Losses: 33
match info
Southampton 2 (Ings 32' & pen 89') Tottenham Hotspur 5 (Son 45', 47', 64', & 73', Kane 82')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
More on animal trafficking
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGrowdash%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJuly%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESean%20Trevaskis%20and%20Enver%20Sorkun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERestaurant%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Plus%20VC%2C%20Judah%20VC%2C%20TPN%20Investments%20and%20angel%20investors%2C%20including%20former%20Talabat%20chief%20executive%20Abdulhamid%20Alomar%2C%20and%20entrepreneur%20Zeid%20Husban%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
