Aligning with national sustainability efforts towards eradicating the use of single-use plastic products, AW Rostamani Group is announcing its ‘Drop It’ campaign, committing to be free of single-use water bottles in all its offices and showrooms by July 2023.

The group aims to eliminate more than 580,000 single-use plastic bottles and replace them with reusable bottles for employees. Companies across the UAE are encouraged to join efforts and commit to stop using plastic bottles by switching to filtered tap water.

Mustafa Dada, General Manager Marketing, Communications & Sustainability at AW Rostamani Group, said in a statement, “The UAE is at the forefront of global sustainability, and we are proud to be supporting its drive to eliminate the use of plastic. We are introducing measures that we hope will inspire our colleagues and peers to adopt a more sustainable approach towards helping fulfil carbon neutrality by 2050.”

He added, “To put things into perspective, more than 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year globally, and it takes at least 450 years for plastic waste to decompose. This is a matter that needs to be urgently addressed and we at AW Rostamani Group are proud to be playing our part in supporting the regional and global ecology.”

''We are very proud to have partnered with AWR helping them reduce single-use plastic bottled water in their offices and beyond, making an immediate positive environmental impact,'' said Tatiana Antonelli Abella, Founder & Managing Partner at Goumbook.

"We can all take small steps to change our daily habits by refusing disposable plastic every day,” she added, noting that carrying reusable water bottles is an easy way to start.

AW Rostamani Group is also supporting the transition to a zero-waste future by introducing tap water filtration systems across its premises to provide employees with safe, clean, and fresh drinking water. The UAE is investing heavily to guarantee the safety of tap water at a time when access to quality filtered water is becoming a popular replacement for plastic bottled-water consumption.

The 'Drop It' campaign is not AW Rostamani Group’s first foray into sustainability. In 2018, it partnered with Goumbook to plant seeds of the UAE's national tree, the Ghaf tree, at Al Barari Nursery. The ‘Give a Ghaf’ seed planting initiative was part of the group’s Year of Zayed activities and was in line with its corporate social responsibility.