Simply put, recycling is good for the environment.

Environmental sustainability is responsible interaction with the environment to avoid depletion or degradation of natural resources and allow for long-term environmental quality. It is a condition of balance, resilience, and interconnectedness ensures that the needs of today's population are met without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs

Less resources are used to recycle materials than to produce them from scratch. Recycling also uses much less water – already a stressed resource in Qatar’s dry desert climate. It takes about 80% less energy to recycle plastics (such as bottles) than in making new ones. To put things into perspective, recycling one single plastic bottle saves enough energy to run a 60 watt light bulb for six hours, or a laptop computer for nearly half an hour.

There’s also the direct threat to Qatar’s sensitive ecosystem. Globally, nearly five billion tonnes of plastic waste is dumped into the oceans every year, killing more than a million seabirds and marine mammals annually. In Qatar’s small yet fragile desert environment, this may potentially translate into an eco-disaster; threatening both flora and fauna of the country.