Waste: A real challenge for Dubai

With the city's rapid growth and urbanization, waste generation has increased dramatically. Total waste collected in 2005 was 11.3 million tons compared to 6.6 million tons in 2003.

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself: What happens to the waste you produce at home? Where does it all go? For most of us, waste is not something that demands much thought. We unwrap, use, and throw. And that's the end of it. But what if we were asked to take a minute and think about how our waste is managed? Images of landfills far, far away come to mind. Magical places where all of our garbage disappears so we never have to see it or think about it again. Unfortunately these places are anything but magical. They are not as far away as we imagine; and they create more problems than they solve

Recycling: Is Dubai really making the effort?

In the last 10 years Dubai has made some efforts to deal with the excessive amounts of waste generated in the city. Recent developments have emphasized waste minimization and recycling. In 2005, 46, 000 tons of recyclable material representing only 3% of total general waste, were collected from 42 recycling centers around the city set up by Dubai Municipality and by private companies. Compared to other emirates, Dubai has the most recycling centers, but not enough residents are making use of them.

More efforts need to be made by the government to promote recycling but this is made difficult by the fact that a large percentage of the city's residents represent a "floating population". People living in Dubai usually leave after only a few years and are in the UAE only temporarily. This makes creating awareness even more difficult than it already is.

Recently, Emarat has installed recycling systems in various service stations and encourages their use through their "recycle and win" campaign. Every time an individual utilizes these units, he automatically obtains coupons that would entitle him to participate in special offers and receive discounts for products at Emarat's retail outlets. Dubai will also hold the first exhibition of waste management technologies in November 2006 entitled "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle".

Future Plans: the path to improved waste management

According to P.N. Surendra Prasad, environmental study officer at the waste service section of Dubai Municipality, Dubai is in the initial stages for marketing recyclable products. The new companies that produce these products from recyclable waste as their source material will benefit from a new law banning export of all types of waste from the emirate. The law came into effect on May 6, 2006.

The Municipality has also commissioned the construction of a large automated waste sorting and recycling plant. Tadweer waste treatment LLC will have a capacity of receiving and sorting 4000 tons of municipal solid waste per day. Once Tadweer is operational in about a year or so, it will take care of most of the recycling in the city but private companies will continue to operate their recycling centers. Dubai residents should, therefore, continue to place their recyclable waste in these centers.

Each person in Dubai produces 1676 kg of waste per year!

Dubai has always had a penchant for acquiring world records, but being one of the largest producers of waste per capita, with 1676 kg of waste (in 2004), is certainly not something to be proud of. Despite all the current efforts, Dubai is still in the early stages of finding an adequate solution for its great waste production, and minimizing waste production is not something that the Municipality can do on its own. Each one of us can help out by taking the time to think about our waste and what happens to it, and taking action.

What one can do to reduce waste:

• Invest in recycled products
• Reduce paper use
• Produce your on compost instead of throwing out dead plants, fruits and vegetables. Mix dead leaves, egg boxes and wood shavings with dead flowers, weeds, teabags and fruit and vegetable remains in a large bin and leave it to for around six months. You can then use it to enrich your garden soil. For more details visit: http://www.startcomposting.co.uk/page2.htm
• Avoid using disposal cups, plates, products with a lot of packaging.
• Recycle!
• Donate your old computers to charity, contact the Dubai Municipality and ask about their computer recycling program. Call the waste services section at 04-206 4231.
• Recycle empty printer cartridges, with proceeds going to charity: Globus General Trading collect used cartridges in exchange for an amount of money that an individual or a company may choose to donate to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).