Recycling makes business sense

Several times, I came across the same scene of a man climbing up a municipality truck and rummaging through the garbage looking for something.

The first thing that came to my mind was that the poor guy was either looking for food or for some stuff that he could make use of.

Intrigued, I came closer to the truck to see what he was up to. I discovered that the man was collecting plastic containers. I also noticed that he was not impoverished.

I shared this incident with my family and friends and without any exaggeration every one of them said that they too had witnessed such incidents.

We were all surprised when we realised that the scavengers were collecting plastic containers and plastic products to sell them to recycling companies. This collection procedure does not take much time and effort, yet they make some money, in addition to their current salaries.

At first glance, this pitiable scene, implies that poverty is widespread in our country - which is not true -and therefore gives a false image of the country to a visitor.

Moreover, the act is not hygiene as the scavenger can catch some minor and contagious diseases or skin infections that in turn could be transmitted to other people.

Finally, I bet that after rummaging through the trash, the whole area around the waste bin would be a mess which also makes the cleaning job tougher for the municipality workers.

Modern methods

Nevertheless, I support them for using the modern waste management method, although their intention is only monetary and not conservation of the environment.

The modern waste management method, in other words recycling, has some benefits which are mainly waste reduction of used materials and consumption reduction of raw materials in addition to the energy usage associated with producing such materials.

Due to these benefits the municipalities should impose modern recycling method in their waste disposable cycle to discipline people and to minimise the amount of waste they have to manage.

We, as residents, are responsible for supporting and contributing to the transformation in the method of disposing household waste by sorting recyclable materials in front of our properties for it to be collected later by a recycling vehicle.

The other option is to take our recyclable materials to collection points. We can only accomplish a successful transformation when all of the parties in the society collaborate and support each other.

Hanan Esmail Al Sahlawi is a UAE columnist.