UAE | Environment
UAE recycling takes to the water
Plastic bottles have never been so useful. While sorting your waste this month put a thought, and your bottles, aside for the first Whatever Floats Your Boat competition.
- By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:28 September 6, 2008
- The InterContinental Dubai Festival City has announced a boat race to be held at the Festival Marina on October 24 and 25. Participants must make boats solely from recycled materials, such as this one used in China during a flood, to raise awareness of the importance of recycling.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Dubai: Plastic bottles have never been so useful. While sorting your waste this month put a thought, and your bottles, aside for the first Whatever Floats Your Boat competition.
Amateur boat builders will be able to design and create their own plastic vessel and race in the first competition of its kind, to raise money for the Emirates Environment Group.
In conjunction with Dubai Festival City and IGY Marinas, the InterContinental Dubai Festival City is putting together the first annual boating festival to be held at Festival Marina on October 24 and 25.
Participants must make a boat out of recyclable materials and race in teams of four across the marina.
The two-day event aims to raise the level of awareness towards recycling in the city, encourage people to be proactive and recycle more. Participation fees are Dh10,000 and all proceeds will go to the Emirates Environmental Group towards their Clean the Creek campaign.
All teams are required to build a boat comprised solely of recycled materials, and adhere to the set rules and regulations. Five teams will race against each other. There will be prizes for the first boat to cross the finish line, the boat with the most creative design and crew costume, and the biggest number of team supporters.
All crafts must be completed by Saturday October 18. Boats can be up to 15 metres long and the boat which crosses the finish line first with all starting team members still on board will win a Bistro Madeleine lunch or dinner for up to eight people and shopping vouchers worth Dh2,000.
Union Paper Mills will provide recyclable materials, bins as well as recycling banks for the collection of glass, bottles, newspapers and plastic waste throughout the event.
Any registered companies who do not have access to enough materials to build their own boats will be supplied with items from UPM. All recycled materials collected on the day including the boats will be recycled by UPM.
Open to all
Between 5,000 to 10,000 spectators are expected every day and the boats will be displayed a week prior to the event at the Festival Centre shopping centre. The event is open to individuals, schools or companies who may want to include it as part of their corporate social responsibility programme.
According to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) 1.5 million tonnes of plastic are used to bottle water every year, unfortunately the recycling process is messy and inefficient but sales of bottled water have increased by 500 per cent over the last decade.
Statistics show that Dubai is one of the world's largest producers of waste and residents create more than 1.5 kilograms per person per day.
Share this article
Related Articles
Popular in UAE
-
Your pictures
Readers' pictures
The best reader pictures from around the UAE this week
Latest news
- Ministry opens hotline to report violators
- First well in relief project to honour scientist
- Help me find my precious cat
- AG expresses confidence in public prosecution's skills
- National ID needed for Interior Ministry services
- Meet to discuss ways to secure energy supplies
- Deyaar case: Expert asked to submit detailed report i
- Institute adopts best judicial practices
- Dubai hospital wins Spain architecture festival award
- Masters in construction law to address sector's concerns
- Private schools form lobby group
- New council to strike demographic balance
- Green moves make desalting plant less damaging
- Technology can negatively affect girls: forum
- Dubai-based British athlete attempts to swim around Palm in record bid
Community Reports
-
Help me find my precious cat
Raif, my cute eight-month-old ‘fur ball', went missing in Abu Dhabi's Al Bateen area last month
-
Pavement parking irks pedestrians
Gulf News reader calls on authorities to step in and stop car owners from invading pathways meant for safe walking
-
Faded parking lines pose a problem
Motorists could be fined for parking incorrectly even though they can hardly see the boundaries in the designated areas
-
School buses block residential parking
Commercial vehicles taking up free parking facilities in Al Wuheida, inconveniencing residents in surrounding villas
