Sharjah launches residential recycling programme

BY PMA RASHEED

30 Jan 2011, The Gulf Today

Sharjah’s public sector environmental management establishment Bee’ah has launched a residential recycling programme in the emirate, as a first of its kind initiative in the UAE.

The residential recycling programme aims at promoting source segregation, besides providing the tools such as bins and totes in residential towers to collect waste, said a top official of Bee’ah.

Salim Bin Mohammed Al Owais, Chairman of Bee’ah, said that the programme includes free door-to-door training on how to recycle at home.

“Bee’ah’s city cleaning division Tandeef plans to serve the whole of the emirate by the end of 2011, as it completes a year of servicing over 800,000 residents in Sharjah. Tandeef’s fleet of vehicles and street sweepers will be further expanded, generating over 750 new jobs, by the end of the year,” he added.

The Tandeef was launched in January 2010, aimed at delivering a comprehensive, cost-effective, environmentally sound and technically reliable waste collection and city beautification solutions.

“Tandeef collects over 600,000 tons of non-hazardous municipal solid waste annually in the serviced sectors within the emirate. The division is currently on an aggressive timeline to expand its collection programmes, complementing Bee’ah’s recycling programme, to include all segments of the community such as residential, commercial and industrial,” elaborated Al Owais.

According to him, this is as part of Bee’ah’s overall integrated waste management strategy.

“Bee’ah is implementing strong strategies to turn waste into resources, placing Sharjah at the forefront of a positive environmental change, leading the way for a greener and better place to live and work,” he indicated.

“Bee’ah has already introduced the Middle East’s first 14-ton street flushing tanker, which goes beyond conventional sweeping and litter picking by cleaning roads with water,” he noted.

Khaled Al Huraimel, CEO of Bee’ah, said, “Tandeef started its operation by servicing Al Majaz Area, which is home to about 300,000 of Sharjah’s nearly one million residents. Within two months, the services were extended to the forth and fifth sectors of the emirate.”

“The Tandeef services included scheduled waste collection, public space and street vacuuming, cleaning, and sweeping. The fleet included a range of superior and all purpose specific vehicles ranging from those used for refuse collection and line-haul long range transport, large street sweepers, mini street sweepers, vacuuming machines to two-stream collection vehicles for waste and recycling,” he explained.

According to him, the division is responsible for the upkeep of the three-stream pedestrian recycling programme that was initially introduced by Bee’ah in 2007.

Al Huraimel noted, “Three-stream recyclers consist of three separate containers for paper, cardboard and plastic, glass and cans, and all other waste. Bee’ah uses these recyclers as a vehicle for furthering education on environmental sustainability by providing advertising opportunities on them for corporations to deliver corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages and communications.”

“GPS vehicle tracking and computerised route-optimisation systems are used to maximise vehicle service efficiency and reduce environmental impact due to emissions.”

“The division is also in charge of collecting waste from Sharjah’s Khalid and Al Khan Lagoons via cleaning boats introduced in August 2010, which are able to collect around 100 kilogrammes of recyclables per day, doubling the rate of earlier techniques used,” concluded Al Huraimel.