David and Theresa Wernery both grew up with a love of nature and the outdoors. Theresa loves to be on the ocean, and David feels most at home exploring the deserts and mountains of the UAE and Oman. Both harbour a deep rooted desire to promote the preservation and protection of these treasured environments, which have unfortunately come under increasing threat from carelessly discarded refuse and waste. A large proportion of this refuse is made up of single use plastics.
 David and his father work at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory here in Dubai. David’s father first coined the term “Fatal Pollution” based on the fact that one of the most common causes of death in animals which come to them for post mortem analysis is as a result of plastic ingestion. The animals are unable to expel the plastic, which forms a calciferous mass (gastro lith) in their stomachs, weighing up to 58 kilograms, and they eventually die a slow and painful death. David and Theresa believe that attitudes to waste creation and management are slowly changing in the UAE, nevertheless, the UAE remains one of the highest per capita producers of waste in the world, and there is still considerable progress to be made both in the UAE and across the globe. Making people aware that there is a plastic pollution problem is a vital first step. Whilst the problem may be obvious for some, there are many people who are not conscious of the effect that their consumption habits have on the environment. David and Theresa want to change people’s habits by showing them the evidence of the effects of plastic pollution and the chain reaction of pollution which is a direct consequence of their actions. The PlasticNotSoFantastic (PNSF) Expedition is an expedition to raise awareness about plastic pollution from the UAE to the rest of the world. The Expedition intends to highlight the fact that the consumption of single use plastics on a regional level has global implications. David and Theresa will be leaving the UAE in March 2012 and will spend 18 months driving eastwards, through Iran, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Russia, Australia, South America, North America, Africa and the Middle East and will return to the UAE having completed approximately 160,000 kilometers. Their primary goals and activities en route will be to: • Show that our consumption of single use plastics in the United Arab Emirates has not only regional, but also global implications • Document instances of plastic pollution, and meet with the community in order to explore the causes, effects and methods of prevention. Many communities and regions, such as the Midway Atoll, are subject to severe plastic pollution problems which are not a result of their own actions. Other instances of plastic pollution are as a result of a lack of understanding of plastic as a material, and the fact that it does not biodegrade in the same manner as other materials which might previously have been used within a community. • Document “best practices” in the utilization of alternatives to single use plastics by corporations, communities and individuals • Meet with experts in the field of plastic pollution and disseminate in greater depth the effects of plastic pollution on human and animal health and welfare • Provide the above information, data, case studies and constructive encouragement to schools, universities, corporations, communities and individuals in the UAE, both as raw material (videos, photographs and contacts) as well as in the form of a library of case studies • Inspire the citizens of the UAE to change their consumption habits away from single use plastics. The PNSF Expedition has been recently endorsed by UNESCO Arab Region, the Emirates Marine Environmental Group, the Emirates Environmental Group, the US based Plastic Pollution Coalition and Project Kaisei, as well as several other local and foreign organizations and stakeholders.
Go-Green.ae wishes Theresa and David a successful expedition.
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