Dubai: More than 34,000 volunteers collected over 6,000 tonnes of waste from various locations in Dubai during a weeklong cleanup drive, Dubai Municipality said on Wednesday.
Releasing the details of the 24th Clean Up the World campaign that was held last week, the civic body said more than 34,000 volunteers from 512 government, private and non-governmental organisations took part in the drive.
They collected over 6,000 tonnes of waste from the desert, coastal, residential and market locations during the weeklong clean-up drive. More than 7,000 volunteers from private companies and families took part on the last day of the campaign held at Deira Corniche.
Talib Julfar, assistant director-general of the Environment and Public Health Services Sector at the municipality, said the aim of this event was to develop positive behaviour towards the local environment and enhance social responsibility towards the country.
“This year, the campaign could ensure the participation of a large number of volunteers from educational institutions, local departments, private and public bodies in the emirate and those interested in environmental affairs and protection. This campaign, from 1994 to this day, embodies the concept of true partnership between society and the environment,” he said.
He said many private companies were involved in waste collection using heavy vehicles.
Also, there was a wide range of participation of the student community from the public and private schools with a total of 15,215 volunteers.
“We are very pleased with the large participation of the volunteers, who were brought together by the love of the environment and volunteering. This is indicative of the positive impact of the awareness efforts offered by Dubai Municipality to the public,” pointed out Julfar.
Abdul Majeed Abdul Aziz Al Saifaie, director of Waste Management Department and the leader of Clean Up the World Campaign, said the activities of this year began with the inauguration of the “Awareness Forum for Students.”
“We also carried out a number of initiatives that enhance the culture of waste sorting such as the Giant Bag initiative at the LuLu Hypermarket in Al Barsha, through which we could collect more than a million plastic bottles and the “Recover the value of your waste in food coupons” campaign, through which we could encourage a large segment of the public on the importance of proper and sustainable disposal of recyclable household waste,” he said.
Two events to encourage waste sorting among families and municipal employees, a competition for schools to collect recyclable materials, awareness drives related to abandoned vehicles, and throwing waste from vehicles were also held as part of the campaign.
