Dubai/Abu Dhabi: Ninety-one tonnes of litter and waste were collected by an estimated 20,000 students and volunteers who swarmed across 106 locations including beaches, free zones and corniches on Sunday as part of an Emirates Environmental Group-organised Clean Up UAE 2010.
In pictures: Volunteers take part in Clean Up UAE
Trudging through the sand in their school uniforms where camel pens once stood in Nad Al Sheba, students from all over Dubai filled rubbish bags with 35 tonnes of trash from the area.
School lessons
Maha Kayali, a teacher from Al Rashid Al Saleh School in Dubai, accompanied 15 fifth-grade students on their first clean-up.
"They have been enjoying it so far. We have been talking about this in class for a long time," she said.
Ten-year-old Zaid Ahmad said he understands that he has to put his rubbish in the bin.
Around 2,500 volunteers collected three tonnes of waste from the 3km Abu Dhabi beach.
"It was a unique combination of people… children, and men and women of all ages and of all nationalities," said Muhra Al Muhairi, Event Section Head at the Community Service Department of the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City.
Grace Relucio Princesa, Philippine Ambassador to the UAE, also turned out with colleagues to show support.
Naseem Buhmaid, a teacher from the Sultan Owais Boys School in Al Warqa, Dubai, said school textbooks are increasingly including lessons on environmental protection and events like the Clean Up help pupils understand the importance of respecting their environment.
Collective responsibility
Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson of the EEG, said the Clean Up UAE campaign has helped educate people about proper waste disposal, even if more waste is picked up every year.
"When we have a sense of collective responsibility, there also lies the realisation that all of us are responsible to preserve and protect the environment.
"The presence of non-conscious people regarding this issue should not be reflected on us, we should reflect our actions to them. We should take care, even though the others do not," said Al Marashi.
In the UAE, many public and private companies have made a visible effort to reduce and recycle their waste.
"There is an expansion of recycling processes and there is a development of laws on [waste management]," she said.
"The EEG recycling programmes are expanding in terms of the number of participants and the quantities of waste recycled, or their expansion to include new types of waste such as mobile phones and TetraPak cartons," she said.
