The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has awarded this year’s Young Champion of the Earth award in West Asia to Kuwaiti-born Fatemah Al-Zelzela for her ‘Eco Star’ local recycling initiative.
The 24-year-old, one of seven under-30 winners also from Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, West Asia, Asia, and the Pacific regions will each be handed USD 10,000 in funding. They will also attend a high-level UN meeting and receive mentorship along with further media exposure to highlight their initiatives, a UNEP press statement read.
The award, each year, is given to individuals, groups and organisations, “whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment.” Eco Star is a not-for-profit group, launched on social media platform Instagram, that recycles discarded waste from homes, restaurants and schools which would have otherwise been dumped at landfills.
Since its launch in early 2019, the initiative has recycled over three-and-a-half tonnes of plastic, 10 tonnes of paper and 120 tonnes of metal. Her company has also launched recycling awareness campaigns at schools and formed a database of collected waste, which records weight and pickup locations, being the first to do so in Kuwait.
“Globally, young people are leading the way in calling for meaningful and immediate solutions to the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – we must listen,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said following the announcement.
“UNEP Young Champions demonstrate that all of us can contribute, starting where we are with what we have.” Since its inception in 2017, some 28 people have been recognized from all corners of the world for pushing the boundaries in regards to their environmental impact.
Source-KUNA
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