Egypt's Red Sea Governor, General Ahmed Abdullah, has issued an official ban on single use or disposable plastics. The ban, which was issued after HEPCA's Proposal (Hurghada Enviromental Protection & Conservation Assosciation), will be put in action starting June. The decision will surely affect the Red Sea Governorate positively as it is home to the country's most popular coastal touristic destinations such as Hurghada, El-Qusair, Ras Ghareb and Marsa Alam.

The ban is inclusive of practically all single-use plastics, and it will be applied on any food related outlets, including coffee shops, supermarkets, butchers, fruits and vegetable shops and pharmacies, as well as plastic cutlery and straws served in restaurants and cruise ships.

The decree is meant to protect one of Egypt's most bio-diverse coastal regions where plastic has caused a plethora of environmental damage; threatening endangered species which are heavily affected through indigestion, entanglement and toxicity from the plastic remains, which happens to also reach us humans through micro-plastics that are dispersed everywhere in our food and water.

Such ban comes at a crucial time as Egypt's waste output has been increasing, reaching 16.2 million tons annually of which plastic constitutes 6%, many of which doesn't end up being recycled, eventually scattering through out the environment.

The ban will be accompanied by an awareness campaign by HEPCA on the negative implications of plastic on marine life and human health. The campaign will comprise of ground activation, lectures in public and private schools, collective land and underwater clean-ups for islands and beaches.