Mosques across the UK have banned plastic this Ramadan, with more being encouraged to promote a more eco-friendly month of fasting.
During Ramadan, hundreds of mosques distribute plastic water bottles to worshippers for iftar throughout the month.
In many cases, this amounts to hundreds of water bottles, as well as plastic cutlery, plates and cups being utilised.
However this year, several mosques across the UK have implemented an environmentally-friendly iftars, where Muslims break their fast by distributing reusable water bottles and cutlery.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is encouraging more mosques to join the campaign.
York Mosque announced its “no single use plastics” policy on Tuesday 7 May, only distributing reusable plastic bottles.
A similar policy has been introduced by Birmingham’s Green Lane Mosque, which has also decided to ban the use of plastic this Ramadan.
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A spokesperson for the mosque said it was estimated that their institution distributes “an average of 800 to 1,000 bottles every evening in Ramadan”, which has resulted in a “shocking amount of plastic waste”.
Subsequently, Green Lane Mosque has decided not to issue plastic water bottles to worshippers for iftar.
It has replaced plastic bottles with reusable bottles that will be sold at a discounted price to the congregation, and they have also installed water fountains for filling stations.
It is estimated that Britain uses 13 billion plastic bottles a year, of which 7.7 billion are water bottles.
