The Jordan Times
By Laila Azzeh
 

AMMAN - Ahmad Bani Mustafa’s science teacher had to “swear” to his students that plastic bags pose dangerous threats to the environment in order for them to believe him.
 

“We thought our teacher was kidding when he told us that plastic bags were one of the most dangerous forms of debris on the planet... I wish I’d known this earlier so that I wouldn’t have trashed as many plastic bags as I did and would have recycled them instead,” said Bani Mustafa, one of the youngest winners of the 2011 Queen Alia Competition for Social Responsibility.
 

Awareness campaigns carried out under the competition, whose theme last year was curbing the use of plastic bags in the Kingdom, brought the issue of recycling and litter control to the attention of school students, according to organisers.
 

Bani Mustafa and his peers, who attend a public school in Jerash, started collecting plastic bags after reading posters distributed as part of the competition to educate people on ways to reduce the dangers of plastic containers.
 

“I told my mom to stop using plastic bags, too,” the 10-year-old student told The Jordan Times.
 

During a ceremony to honour the dozens of winners in the competition, HRH Princess Basma voiced her appreciation for the cooperation of the education, planning, environment and interior ministries in ensuring the success of the initiative, along with universities, UNRWA and the private sector.
 

“This is the type of work we need in this critical stage we are living through... we are in dire need of honesty in intentions and loyalty to this country in order to overcome the challenges we face,” the Princess said, adding that “giving and building in spite of scarce resources has always been a main feature of our country throughout the years”.
 

According to Muzahem Muhaisin, president of the competition’s higher committee, the competition managed this year to reach 650,000 households by distributing brochures outlining the dangers of plastic bags.
 

“Consumption of plastic bags in Jordan is estimated at three billion bags a year, which means the per capita use of plastic containers is a bag and a half each day,” he highlighted, adding that the world consumes a total of 500 billion bags annually.
 

He said that the competition’s proceeds, which amounted to JD120,000 collected from the application fees, would primarily go towards supporting institutions for people with disabilities.
 

Muhaisin said JD50,000 will go to Al Rajaa School for students with hearing difficulties, JD25,000 to the Mutah Centre for Special Education and JD15,000 to physical therapy units for children with cerebral palsy.
 

“The remaining JD30,000 will be used to purchase garbage bins for schools,” he added.
 

Launched by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) in 1995, the annual competition seeks to shed light on prominent issues such as water, the environment and health and to raise public awareness on ways to help address these issues by distributing questionnaires to education departments across the Kingdom.
 

Before the start of the ceremony, Princess Basma toured an exhibition showcasing university students’ projects that won the Jo-Green competition, which was launched by JOHUD in cooperation with the Queen Alia Competition for Social Responsibility.