Environmental cubic box project to be rolled out

Dubai: Cubic boxes are making their way across classrooms in Dubai as part of the civic body’s experiment for children to visualise the value of recycling.

This initiative is the first type of its kind in the country and was designed at a pragmatic level that is expected to tackle the lack of interest in recycling, through promoting a point-based system.

The first phase of the project will feature plastic cubic boxes, measuring 40x40 centimetres, which will be distributed among 20 classrooms in Bur Dubai by the end of November.

Speaking to Gulf News, Sari Al Saadi, executive director for ‘My City, My Environment’ recycling project, said that the new project will run for five years and expand accordingly — with the possibility of reaching a nationwide scope.

“The project will work on the principle of sustainable motivation and the cubes will be used to segregate paper and plastic. Once they are filled, each classroom will earn a cubic point that can then be translated into a value that children can understand, such as money,” said Al Saadi, pointing out that the translated value has not been finalised as yet.

The cubic project is part of Dubai Municipality’s ‘My City, My Environment’ campaign, where municipal officials announced earlier last month that it intended to carry out the message of conservation and recycling via workshops into school classrooms, homes, parks, malls and streets.

To further promote the campaign, Dubai Environmental Culture staffers are working on a cube-shaped symbol that will represent green efforts across Dubai and will be placed in key public areas as reminders that the environment is everyone’s responsibility.

For example, a mega cube symbolising the amount of waste generated in a home that is lost to landfills if not recycled, is expected to be on display in parks and malls to reinforce the recycling message.

Salah Amiri, assistant director-general for Environmental and Public Health Services Sector, had previously said the workshops will use modern teaching methods of “learn through play,” as teaching children is critical in order to reduce 35 per cent of garbage that is still being buried in landfills today in Dubai.

There is currently no metric value used when giving back to the community, and as Al Saadi noted, this in turn might refrain children from grasping the concept of recycling.

“Each cubic box is also a symbolic representation of green blocks used for sustainable buildings, and as the boxes get filled they will also become taller in height. The intrinsic value of recyclables will then be given back to the community through one of our projects, such as planting a tree,” he said.