Recycling made easy in Sharjah

Sharjah: A three-stream recycling centre is on the cards for Sharjah in order to provide an opportunity for people living in villas to recycle their waste.

"One idea, which is currently under discussion, is to set up a three-stream recycling centre where people can drive up with their car and leave their recyclable waste," said Samer Kamal, Managing Director at Bee'ah, the Sharjah Environment Company.

The recycling centre will consist of mesh cages where residents can recycle paper, plastic and aluminium.

"We will be looking for the best locations so that villa dwellers will have easy access to the centre," he added.

According to previous reports, each UAE resident on average throws away 600 kilograms of recyclable material every year. The population in Sharjah is growing at a rate of 13 per cent per year, and there are 100,000 new residents a year.

"We are a big consumer market, so the less we export the better we treat the environment and the better we treat ourselves - by buying recycled products that are cheaper," said Kamal.

The blue recycling boxes on Buheira Corniche, which are produced by Bee'ah, is only part of one programme and will not be limited to that area.

"We aim to soon distribute them in universities, parks, shopping areas and industrial areas. Our long-term goal is to have a curb-side collection system where residents can leave their recyclables on the curb for the garbage collector, so they will not have to walk far and there will be easy access," said Kamal, adding that in 18 months 5,000 recycling bins will be distributed around the city.

Bee'ah also aims to build a tyre recycling centre where it will make end products.

"Tyres are made up of steel, rubber and fabric, and the machinery used will shatter the materials and turn them into powder so that we can use it to make outdoor flooring products, like in playgrounds for schools.

"The powder will also be used as a combined material with asphalt so it will increase the lifespan of roads, and it has other benefits, as it is less expensive than using asphalt on its own," said Kamal.

The tyre-recycling plant is currently under architectural design and our goal is for it to be completed at the same time the machinery is made, which will take up to two years at the most.

"The weather here is perfect for using this sort of material because the hotter it gets, the better the rubber supports the roads," he said, emphasising the company is also working with Sharjah Municipality to set new environmental standards and to address its growing waste challenges, such as where new landfills should be located.

The company was launched in December 2006 and is the first environment-friendly recycling company in Sharjah to help solve the vast problem of waste disposal within the emirate.

'Trash lottery'

Many communities around the world have their own successful recycling. The following are a few examples from the US:

Residents in Rockford, Illinois, can win more than $1,000 (Dh3,670) through their "trash lottery". Through this innovative programme, residents are randomly selected for separating recyclable materials from their garbage, and are paid from the city's savings in landfill costs.

Due to strong community support for recycling in King County, Washington, plans to incinerate waste were postponed.

In the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, a goal has been set to cut its waste by 52 per cent by recycling. The city's residents have one of the highest recycling rates in the nation.

Action

In Ontario, Canada, an observatory helps preserve birds with Environment Action 21 with money given to them by a community programme. They are taking a census of the birds and are going to put them in captive breeding flocks in order to increase their dwindling population.

- Information courtesy: Thinkquest.org