Residents must do their part in recycling through correctly using the public containers dedicated for general waste and recyclable materials
With the country aiming to reduce waste reaching landfill by 75 per cent by 2021, officials are urging the public to correctly allocate their waste in the right containers.
While the government has been investing in smart waste segregation and collection systems, residents must do their part in recycling through correctly using the public containers dedicated for general waste and recyclable materials (paper, glass, cans, plastic, etc).
Abdulmajeed Saifaie, director of the waste management department at the Dubai Municipality, said when waste is properly segregated at source, it helps waste collection companies to recover recyclable materials.
"A vehicle picks up the general waste daily, while a different vehicle picks up recyclable materials every few days," said Saifaie. "While waste collection companies send one truck to pick up the general waste to avoid extra costs, the waste in green and blue bins - for recyclables vs general waste - is segregated at the offloading location before going to landfills."
Saifaie added that when residents segregate their waste in the right container, it guides companies to separate recyclables in a quicker and cheaper manner.
While Waste to Energy techniques have been widely followed across the world, Saifaie said the waste collected is either recycled or burned to produce energy.
"When the waste is mixed, it is burned to generate energy. Otherwise, it is segregated and recycled." Currently, little of the waste is burnt and the rate of municipal waste recycling has been rapidly rising.
The UAE has one of the highest waste generation rates, with each person estimated to produce from 1.9kg to 2.5kg of waste every day. In 2016, for example, Dubai generated 8,200 tonnes of solid municipal waste per day. Yet, only about 10 per cent of residents in the country actively recycle their waste.
Saifaie said while the government provides the right facilities for people to segregate waste, it goes back to people's efforts in recycling. The 13 Smart Sustainability Oasis centres that the civic body had set up across public parks and municipality centres contributed in recycling 168,580kg of materials in 2017, and 61,470kg in the first quarter of 2018.
The smart centres allow residents to deposit 18 types of recyclable materials.
"There are people who feel environmentally more responsible than others. We set up these smart centres in accessible places for people eager to recycle green trash. Otherwise, smart littering containers are deployed on the streets to guide the public into segregation," said Saifaie.
The Dubai Municipality recently distributed 150 environment-friendly smart containers to help residents separate waste easily through two categories of general waste and recyclable materials on Second of December street and both sides of Sheikh Zayed Road. The containers automatically compress general waste to avoid accumulation with a sensor that reports full container to control centres.
As for residential communities, smart collection system to assist communities in waste segregation, recently introduced in Al Mamzar, is set to replace the current door-to-door household recycling of green and blue bins placed in densely populated areas as part of "My City, My Environment" campaign.
Meanwhile, Sharjah's Bee'ah has been replacing the single stream bins with green and blue bins since 2012. Their door-to-door residential recycling programme has educated housekeepers and residents on recycling instructions in over seven languages and distributed bio-degradable blue and green bags which make it easier for them to sort and dispose of their waste.
SOURCE : KHALEEJTIMES