Recycling in UAE – Then and Now
What is Recycling
Recycling essentially implies that waste or useless objects are turned into new usable goods. This involves gathering recyclable waste and converting it into raw materials that are then used to manufacture new products.
Given the amount of waste we produce every day, recycling is not an act of personal interest anymore.
Why recycling is important in UAE
The UAE is a center for expats and multinational firms. Due to the country’s economic attractiveness and public infrastructure, the country offers large business opportunities for people around the world. In the last decade, the amount of waste in the UAE has risen due to population growth and economic activity.
According to a report published by Khaleej Times, the average person in the UAE produces 2.7kg of waste per day. Dubai’s waste production is estimated to be 10 times more than the available landfill space. As waste decays in landfills, greenhouse gases, mostly methane, are released into the air. This gas is one of the most significant factors leading to climate change. One of the biggest issues facing our country is the management of waste and thus reducing its environmental effects.
Efforts taken by UAE government
While the government of the UAE is taking tremendous steps to remove waste from landfills, every person and company has their own role to play in protecting the environment. This is where recycling comes into play. As waste generation is rising at an alarming pace, it is the need of the hour. Not only does recycling hold waste away from landfills, but it also decreases the demand for raw materials, thus eliminating the need for mining, which, on the other hand, has a devastating environmental effect.
Taking into account the severity of the situation, a bill punishing improper waste disposal has been passed by the UAE’s Federal National Council(FNC).The UAE has also made Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) obligatory for all businesses to ensure that businesses contribute to the development of the society by providing cash or products and services for economic, social and environmental projects. Together with the CSR index, CSR mark programs will also be introduced soon to track the performance of businesses and identify them based on their CSR activities
How can Recycling benefit Business?
Recycling and reusing are the best ways to start on the road to more socially conscious business management. Not only does it show a company’s corporate social responsibility, but it also helps them find more successful ways of working. Recycling is considered a synonym for sustainability and promotes the ambitions of the UAE for a circular economy to a great degree because it has the potential to solve some of our most pressing environmental and economic problems. In a circular economy resources can be used several times with the aim of reducing waste and its detrimental environmental and social impacts. Because of its environmental and economic benefits, as well as its ability to create a good identity among their customers, businesses should try to achieve this.
Recycling around the UAE was somewhat inaccessible a few years ago, but now recycling centers can be conveniently found everywhere. People have begun to understand that recycling is simple and one of the most productive ways of minimizing waste. However, we need to take notice that while almost every item in this world can be recycled, it is not done so because the price of recycled goods is more than original in the case of certain materials.
How to get started with Recycling?
Recycling often starts with the other R’s in sustainability, reducing and reusing. How to get started, then?
- Let’s stop generating waste in the first place.
- Always evaluate an object before dropping it off into the trash if it can serve some other purpose, as it takes a lot of energy to produce a new product!
- If not in any way reusable, then give it an entirely new life by recycling, since this would prevent the waste of raw materials that could be potentially useful, thus minimizing the depletion of natural resources.