Dubai: The Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) aims to include 114,000 participants this year in the Clean Up UAE campaign in a bid to get more people into the habit of keeping the country clean, it was announced on Sunday.

The 13th edition of the Clean Up UAE campaign, which first started in 2002 and gained popularity over the years with more participants joining in, will begin in Dubai on December 6 – covering all the e mirates — and will end on December 12 in Ajman.

The campaign has seen the participation of many academic institutions, private corporations, government bodies, families and individuals who have all taken part and agreed to play a role in keeping the environment clean.

Speaking at a press conference, Habiba Al Marashi, chairperson of EEG, said that over the years the campaign has proven to be successful with more participants, more waste being collected, and more sites being covered.

“Our aim this year is to get the active participation of the community and not to collect more waste because we are hoping that after 13 years of this campaign people have understood that they shouldn’t be littering. We want the whole community to get into the habit of taking care of their environment and to make it part of the culture to have people less prone to throwing waste,” Habiba said.

Over the years, the number of participants and amount of waste collected have increased, but a graph EEG published shows that compared to the previous years, the number of waste collected in 2013 decreased. Last year, around 112,000 participants volunteered and 100,000 tonnes of waste was collected.

“In 2002 when we first started, only 4,500 people volunteered. Last year we were very happy with the results and with the number of participants who covered 102 locations. We look at this as a good family bonding process because it brings everyone closer to each other and so they find joy in being involved in an activity where they get to meet with others and develop friendships.” said Habiba.

She added that in addition to cleaning up, the programme will also focus on waste segregation and getting people used to segregating waste such as plastic, aluminium, glass and paper, which will all be transferred to factories to be recycled.

Habiba said that EEG will consider organising the 2014 clean up in an area if at least 150 people suggest it. The full list of areas to be covered is not yet finalised, with inputs expected from the wider community.

She also said it was possible the drive in 2015 could start earlier to cover UAE National Day (December 2) as it would assist officials in the clean up following the celebrations.