Bee’ah & Sharjah Municipality Roll Out Residential Recycling In Sharjah, In Tribute To UAE National Environment Day

Waste Collection Goes From Single-stream To Two-stream With Dedicated Blue & Green Bins Situated Outside Homes For Recycling & General Waste

Starting today, residents will be able to keep Sharjah cleaner and greener while sending less waste to the landfill and increase their recycling levels.

In tribute to the UAE National Environment Day on February 4th, the Sharjah City Municipality and Bee’ah – the Middle East’s leading integrated and award winning environmental and waste management company and the first to bring residential recycling to the UAE – has officially rolled out the residential recycling programme throughout Sharjah, with the introduction of dual coloured bins to encourage waste segregation and empower residents to recycle at home.

The shift from the current waste collection system to the dual-stream recycling process means residents will be tossing all recyclables – paper, cardboard, glass, plastics and aluminum – into a blue bin while all other general waste will be deposited in a green bin. Thus, turning away valuable recyclables away from the landfill, and are sent for recycling or turned into other uses.

“Every year, Sharjah households generate around 600,000 tonnes of waste of which we are recovering a small percentage for recycling and the rest go to landfill. This number will drastically reduce with the residential recycling programme, boosting an increase of 5%-10% towards our target. We are currently reaching more than 40% and need every percent in order to reach our objective of 100% waste to landfill by 2015.” commented H.E. Salim Al Owais – Chairman of Bee’ah.

“By working continuously with the Sharjah City Municipality, Bee’ah has become one of the most important environmental companies in the Middle East. We are confident that with the support of our community and partners, we can achieve our goal,” he added.

Speaking at the press launch, Mr. Khaled Al Huraimel, Chief Executive Officer at Bee’ah said: “This is the first programme of its kind on a large-scale outreach in the Middle East, and will see the introduction of dual coloured bins in order to encourage waste segregation and empower residents of Sharjah to recycle at home. Bee’ah’s residential recycling programme will commence today in planned phases, serving sector by sector. We have a goal to get this scheme rolled out by the end of 2012, but if all goes to plan we could see 75% of residents in Sharjah benefiting from it as early as July.”

The first sector to receive the new system is Sector 5 in the Al Shahba sub sector, due to its variety of commercial and residential buildings as well as schools and mosques situated within it, and diverse with high and low income individuals. Soon after this, Bee’ah will roll out in the Khezammia sub sector followed by the Halwan sub sector. The programme will then be implemented in Sectors 4, 2, 3, 7 and 6 in that order by the end of December 2012.

Pavements along the streets of Sharjah will be reengineered in collaboration with Sharjah City Municipality to accommodate 2,000 pairs of new blue and green bins in order to avoid any traffic disruptions. While on unpaved roads, the current metal bins will be restored and painted in blue and green, so as to enable the same scheme to be available all over Sharjah.

In addition to the new bins, Bee’ah acquired all new collection and cleaning vehicles brought especially from Europe, equipped with the state-of-the-art technologies, to ensure higher efficiency and better collection operation throughout the streets of Sharjah. The latest of these is the bin washer vehicle which provides the capability to wash the new bins after each collection routine, so as to prevent any smell from left over waste. Moreover, the new street cleaning vehicle’s power and technology ensures higher efficiency and thorough performance during the street cleaning process.

“Our aim is to constantly look for ways to improve Tandeef’s current system in order to deliver the best cleaning and waste collection services for our Sharjah community. Acquiring these new state-of-the-art vehicles helps us accomplish just that,” added Al Huraimel.

Homeowners will be provided with a starter kit consisting of a flyer, blue and green bin liners to help make separating their waste easy. Volunteers will assist with door-to-door training within each sector, as the programme is rolled out. An extensive media campaign titled “Separate, it’s already a habit” will also be employed in all major newspapers, showing residents that separating is already a part of their day-to-day lives with images of separating whites from coloured clothes, for example.

“Education is key. It certainly will be a big change for some people, so Bee’ah will be providing informative tools to raise awareness and help answer questions. Residents have already responded very well to previous recycling pilots, and we are sure people in Sharjah will embrace the new Residential Recycling programme once it is fully rolled out. 

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