The initiative was announced on World Environment Day…

Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central Airport (DWC) have pledged to eliminate single-use plastic from the majority of businesses by January 1, 2020.

The announcement came as part of the airport’s World Environment Day celebrations, along with a host of other environmentally-friendly initiatives that they have launched. In a video, DXB announced that they are working with 106 of their retail and hospitality partners to ensure that plastic waste is reduced as much as possible.

Some initiatives include replacing plastic straws with more eco-friendly alternatives, offering paper-less receipts to customers, and planting trees for each sale transaction. Dubai Duty Free has introduced a reusable bag for customers to purchase instead of a single-use carrier bag.

On #WorldEnvironmentDay, June 5 2019, we collaborated with over 106 businesses operating at @DXB to showcase the positive impact that can be made by eliminating practices and materials that can harm the environment. https://t.co/IJU2odTVfI — Dubai Airports (@DubaiAirports) June 10, 2019

ALSO READ: Where to travel in 2019: 5 new flight routes from Dubai

“At the world’s busiest international airport, we’re making a commitment to reduce or eliminate plastic waste. From January next year we intend to eliminate single-use disposable plastics from most of our businesses and together with many of our retail and hospitality partners we’ve introduced a wide range of initiatives on World Environment Day to show what a difference a day can make,” said Eugene Barry, executive vice president of Commercial at Dubai Airports.

Costa Coffee is also collaborating with DXB airport to create an upcycled artwork from recycled plastic straws. Made from 60,000 straws, Last Straw will be placed in the arrivals gate of Terminal 3 from May 31.

The straw installation, designed by award-winning sculpture artist Mariska Nell, aims to capture the attention of travellers and remind them to take greater care of the planet. The artwork will also prevent the recycled materials from finding their fate on a landfill site.

— For the best of Dubai straight to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.

Images: Provided