Dubai: Emirates Environmental Group on Saturday awarded the champions of its ‘Recycle. Reforest. Repeat’ project during a ceremony in Dubai on Saturday.
The project was held from June 18 to July 18 with the goal of engaging its student, academic and corporate members and encouraging them to take action towards reversing land degradation. It strategically targeted paper collections as the recycling of paper allows for sustainability through minimising carbon dioxide emissions and the number of trees that are being cut down, hence reducing the pressure on natural resources and combatting desertification.
In the corporate category, Pride Group Ajman was awarded for collecting 13.61 tonnes of paper; American School of Dubai for collecting 5.75 tonnes in the education category; and Reem Mujahed Haj for collecting 1.78 tonnes in the individual category.
Overall, the target of paper collections was 750kg of paper for corporate and academic members and 350kg of paper for student members.
The project witnessed an 85 per cent increase in participation since last year with 216 entities. The participants collectively deposited over 132.7 tonnes of paper during the one-month period, leading to a 173 per cent increase in collections compared to 2017.
The recycling of the collected paper resulted in saving 416 cubic metres of landfill space and 2,243 trees from being felled.
EEG’s chairperson Habiba Al Mar’ashi addressed the champions of the project and awarded them with certificates of participation and a sapling of an indigenous tree to be planted in their name under EEG’s ‘For Our Emirates We Plant Initiative’ in December.
A special mention was made of the 75 student members, 22 corporate organisations, 20 academic institutions and the category champions that met their target.
