Dubai residents to get recycle bins in green drive

Dubai has taken another step towards its goal to be a green city and the latest initiative is to provide as many as 3,700 waste recycle bins free of cost to households in the emriate. The waste department of the civic body has launched a community initiative called ‘My City My Environment', under which households in Al Mizhar 1, Al Mizhar 2 and Nad Al Hamar, will be provided with two types of bins — recycle and waste. The service initiative was launched by Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, yesterday. So far, recycle bins are placed outside several communities in the emirate and it is the first time that the municipality is reaching households at an individual level for this initiative. After a trial this year, the Dubai Municipality plans to extend the initiative of providing recycle bins to households across all localities in the emirate. Article continues below "It is part of our efforts to segregate waste at the source. On an average, nearly 70 per cent of waste generated by every household in the emirate is non-organic (plastic, glass etc). If we are able to segregate it right from the level of households and recycle it, we will be able to reach our target of recycling 100 per cent of our waste fast," said Abdul Majeed Abdul Aziz Saifaie, director of Dubai Municipality's Waste Management Department. Waste that is segregated can be directly sent for recycling whereas the one that is not will require extra resources to segregate and send it to landfill and recycling. "We are making efforts at various levels to reach the target of recycling all our waste in line with our waste management plan," said Saifaie. The civic body has selected three private companies, Emdad, Averda and Dulsco to distribute the waste bins and collect collect waste directly from the houses in these areas. non-complianceThe Waste Management department of Dubai Municipality is contemplating action against malls that are not segregating their waste. "We sent them the proposal and also reminder. The deadline was February 1 and now we will have to find a way how this can be done," said Abdul Majeed Saifaie, director of Dubai Municipality's Waste Management Department.