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Salim Bin Mohammad Al Owais (third from left) speaks at the launch of the new service to clean up waste for a safe environment. Image Credit: WAM

Sharjah: The sight of industrial and medical waste will soon be gone as authorities on Sunday launched a new cleaning service company with a capital of Dh300 million to collect solid waste from the city.

"The services of Tandeef will focus on collecting waste in the industrial areas, which is very harmful to the environment, such as solid and medical waste," said Salim Bin Mohammad Al Owais, Acting Chairman of Bee'ah.

"We are aware that the situation of rubbish overflow has gotten out of control because of the city's increase in the number of residents, That is why the government launched a new service to get rid of the waste."

Bee'ah, the Sharjah Environment Company, in collaboration with Sharjah Municipality, launched the services of Tandeef, which was specifically created to deliver a cost effective and technically reliable solid waste collection system.

The new services start operating from today at Al Majaz, which is home to approximately 300,000 of the city's population of one million. Tandeef will then expand its operations to service the remaining 13 areas of the city over the next 12 to 15 months.

Al Owais pointed out that once all areas are provided with the service, Tandeef will then be responsible for collecting, transporting and recycling over 600,000 tons of non-hazardous Municipal Solid Waste annually.

"Residential areas will also be targeted as we will soon distribute boxes to residents, so that they [residents] can sort out their rubbish that needs to be recycled."

The 14 areas of the city will be serviced by a number of vehicles ranging from refuse collection vehicles to vacuuming machines, as well as line-haul long range transports.

"Our mission is to ensure that there is a healthy and clean environment for people of the emirate. Through this programme, Sharjah will be a first-class environmental example with established international standards and procedures," said Sultan Al Mualla, Director General of Sharjah Municipality.

All the vehicles will use a global positioning system (GPS) in order to operate where traffic levels are low so that they will not act as a burden to congested roads.

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