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Does anymore know if here in Dubai recycling is actually happening? I was wondering yesterday about this….

We take a lot of effort every day to separate cans, bottles, plastic and news papers, and weekly drop it to the recycling post of Dubai Municipality next to Safa Park. But, whenever we going there, I have this thought that it may just ends up in the land fill like any other garbage. Does anyone has any information that indeed this stuff ends up for recycling and our efforts are not in vain?

I am pretty sure it is a "feel good' thing. If they actually wanted to do something about it, they should charge a deposit on all bottles, cans, etc. like they do in other areas. Seeing as Dubai pumps toilet waste directly into the sea, I doubt anything is recycled. As you know, the UAE has the worst carbon footprint per capita globally.

Try watering your lawn at high noon in Australia and see how far you get! For years it has bugged me that they plant and replace flowers and the like here that are just not meant to grow here. Festival city Road is the perfect example. It seems they are pulling out the dead plants and putting in new ones non-stop. They then turn the sprinklers on at noon and half of them blast onto the road and not the plants! They reach the end of the road, then start at the beginning and do it all over.

I would love to be proven wrong.

@dubaidog

good point about the watering of the "road" in Dubai... They never get the timing right, and pipes seem to fail constantly; especially Wasl Road and Jumeirah Beach road I see always this problem.

Not just the water on the road is a waste, but also the additional car wash needed after going trough the water .

There is a recycling industry here but AFAIK its all privately owned as in scrap metal dealers who sell it on again to smelters mostly outside the country to China and India. Personally I doubt that any of the bins provided in public places ever get recycled. I've been here a long time but I have yet to see or hear of a publicly owned smelter or recycling plant. A friend used to work in Dubal ( Dubai Aluminuim ) long time ago and from what I can remember they had no such provision to recycle, Again like DD I would also be liked to be proven wrong.

You will see specially outside dubai, scavengers dumpster diving to collect card board and cans but they sell these to the scrap dealers like I said before who in turn ship it out of the country. I know this because I had relative work for a long time at one of these metal scrap dealers and they made some real good money.

Which reminds me anyone know anyone scrapping a ship or tanker, good money in that. Talking millions just in commision

As for the road watering goes, take a trip down to shj. Where most of the roads turn into skid pads in the evening. Well atleast they tell us that the water is recycled and atleast in dubai I know there is a watse water treatment plant.

dubaidog wrote:Seeing as Dubai pumps toilet waste directly into the sea, I doubt anything is recycled. As you know, the UAE has the worst carbon footprint per capita globally.

I would love to be proven wrong.

I do know that Government bodies are constantly being lobbied by the industries professionals but ultimately the recycling services are in the main a cost to the Municipality rather than a profitable business. There are several private sector plastic and paper recycling businesses working in Dubai and Union Paper Mills http://www.upm.ae/index.htm is one that comes to mind, so I would suggest that the recycling centres will in fact recycle, the municipality, if they collect, currently have a landfill policy.

Dubai has never knowingly pumped raw sewage into the sea! There was a scandal in late 2007 when tanker drivers were illegally dumping raw sewage down storm drains in Al-Quoz that polluted the sea around the Offshore Sailing Club and beaches were closed for a short period, the illegal dumping was due to the excessive queues at the STP plant at Al-Awir at that time, the practice was short lived, the culprits caught and punished and the queues at Al-Awir subsided when the new STP at Jebel Ali opened Q1 2010.

You also need to understand that the water used for irrigation here in the UAE is TSE (Treated Sewage Effluent) and not potable water, to further polish this water into drinking quality is an expensive process and while considered a more sustainable approach as indeed, in Singapore around 30% of their potable water reserves are made up of recycled sewage, this product is in fact considered Haram, so is not an option for this part of the world, this doesn’t however excuse the poor management of TSE, it is still a valuable commodity.

the UAE has the worst carbon footprint per capita globally.

This is exactly correct, but consider where the UAE would be without all the cheap Carbon fuels it converts into Electricity, Water, TSE, and Aluminium, regardless of any environmental or sustainability question, DEWA, ADEWA and the laws that were established by which the two supply authorities run their businesses clearly indicate they are run for maximum profit, everything else just pales into insignificance. Why do you think every domestic property is installed with, on average five x 3kw electric water heaters, there is no policy on the use of solar voltaic or solar thermal technologies and neither Authority will entertain discussions on Net Metering? The more gas they sell the more profit they make and right now, let’s face it, they need as much as they can muster.

Regards

Good post Dillon, me thinks you have "Hit the nail on the Head"

The definition of re-cycling in Dubai: is a little man on a bicycle with a huge pile of flattened cardboard cartons on the back...riding the wrong way down Sheikh Zayed Road!



Knight

That would be re-cycling cyling
Not to mention zero emissions aswell !

desertdudeshj wrote:That would be re-cycling cyling
Not to mention zero emissions aswell !

That would depend on what he had for lunch!



Knight

I think quite a bit of recycling goes on and it's definitely not all just for show. Certainly Spinneys are pretty active at it, they have the various bins at their larger stores.

It's something that needs more awareness though.

Nah chocs no one is arguing that if recycling actually happens, but if any "official" recycling takes place, specially with all the talk about being green, reducing waste, conserving water and recycling from the man.

The man only talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk

Dubai Knight wrote:

desertdudeshj wrote:That would be re-cycling cyling
Not to mention zero emissions aswell !

That would depend on what he had for lunch!



Knight

Omelette paratha sandwich and some fish biryani

desertdudeshj wrote: Omelette paratha sandwich and some fish biryani

= Turbo charger!



Knight