Kurdistan not Plastikistan
The problem is so deep and wide it’s hard to know where to start.
But we think it should start with individuals changing their shopping habits. You can keep re-usable shopping bags in your car so that when you go to the shop you don’t need to use the free disposable ones they provide you with.
30 years ago, Kurds used to take a basket with them to carry their groceries home. Now people expect to shop without taking anything to carry their shopping home in, and if you even buy a lollypop the shopkeeper will put it in a small plastic bag! It’s become the Way We Do Things. But it’s a very new Way.
So a strong argument to make is that the use of piles and piles of single-use-plastic bags each day is not Kurdawerî, it’s not in line with Kurdishness. No one lived that way until very very recently.
Of course, it would be good if shops charged you for each bag you use. This has become widespread in Europe and many states in the US. But in Kurdistan that probably wouldn’t work.[1] Much of the Majority World has introduced outright bans of single-use-plastic bags, and we think the Kurdistan authorities (and the Baghdad government too) should carefully research how a ban like that could be implemented in Iraq. We’d be naive to think you could just ban it overnight without careful planning. (though Morocco did fairly suddenly ban plastic bags and provided alternatives and it had a big impact on their environment)
We should pray for those in authority, but for now, everyone who loves the beautiful land that is Kurdistan should try and play their part. We can raise awareness, and explain to others some of these basic points:
- Plastic gets blown across the fields and kills sheep and cows when they graze on the plastic in the grass
- Plastic goes into the road drains and blocks the flow of water. Cars and houses get destroyed and people drown in the flash floods. This is called ‘Plastic-Aggravated Flooding’ and it is a huge problem worldwide, especially in poorer communities.
- Plastic litter is ugly. It ruins Kurdistan’s beautiful countryside
- This ruins Kurdistan’s economy. Millions of tourists, esp from Southern Iraq, come to Kurdistan to enjoy the mountains, the rivers and the cooler climate.
- When a no-tolerance zone is established, the results are wonderful. Zakho now has a cleaned-up river flowing through it, with a path (the ‘corniche’) for walking and cycling. They don’t allow any litter, and I notice people are ashamed to throw their trash onto the corniche or into the river, because they know it will ruin the crystal-blue beauty of the Khabur River. Friends, this success story can be repeated in multiple places across Kurdistan, until people realise ‘Wow, I love plastic-free places. Let’s keep Kurdistan clean’.
Yours, for the love of Kurdistan, (and for the Arab neighbours downstream who have to deal with all the plastic we send down the Tigris),
Jeremy Fowler (a/k/a Îbrahîm Koçer)
We can raise awareness together! Please use these hashtags when posting on social media:
#BeatPlasticPollution
#KurdistanNePlastikistan #كوردستان_نە_پلاستیکستان
