Sharjah residents to benefit from recycling initiative

Residents living in villas will now be able to segregate waste easily for recycling as environmental and waste management company, Bee'ah, on Monday launched the first residential recycling initiative here. In a tribute to UAE National Environment Day that was held last Saturday, Bee'ah in tandem with the Sharjah Municipality has rolled out the residential recycling programme by introducing dual coloured bins to encourage waste segregation at home. The shift from the current waste collection system to the dual-stream recycling process means residents will be able to dispose of all recyclables, including paper, cardboard, glass, plastics and aluminium, into a blue bin while all other general waste will be deposited in a green bin. "Every year, Sharjah households generate around 600,000 tonnes of waste of which we are recovering a small percentage for recycling and the rest goes to landfill. This number will drastically reduce with the residential recycling programme, boosting an increase of 5 to 10 per cent towards our target," Salim Al Owais, Chairman of Bee'ah, said. "We are currently reaching more than 40 per cent of our target and aim to reach our objective of 100 per cent by 2015," Al Owais said. Speaking at yesterday's press conference, Khalid Al Huraimel, Chief Executive at Bee'ah, said this is the first programme of its kind with a large-scale outreach in the Middle East. "Bee'ah's residential recycling programme will commence today in planned phases, serving sector by sector. We have a goal to get this scheme rolled out by the end of 2012, but if all goes to plan we could see 75 per cent of residents in Sharjah benefiting from it as early as July," Al Huraimel said. The first sector to benefit from the initiative is Al Shahba area. The initiative will next be implemented in Khezammia followed by Halwan. The programme will then be implemented in remaining residential villas by the end of December 2012, and will then focus on towns in the Eastern region. Paper and plastic in focus Environmentalists will gather in Dubai at the end of the month to discuss paper and plastic recycling. The Paper and Plastics Recycling Conference Middle East, set for February 27-28, is being held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Dubai, and will be hosted by US-based Recycling Today Media Group and Dubai-based Media Fusion. Organisers said the "event will combine market-driven sessions examining commodity markets for recovered paper and plastics in a global context, insights from local policy makers on regional waste and recycling management development and case studies of how the industry is being developed from local recyclers."