Special Features
Bee’ah Targets Zero Waste
Bee’ah – the Middle East’s leading integrated and award winning environmental and waste management company, is gearing up towards a zero waste target set for the Emirate of Sharjah by the end of the first quarter of 2015, in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qassimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the UAE and Ruler of Sharjah, to protect the environment of the Emirate of Sharjah for a sustainable and environmentally-efficient future.This target was announced today at the Green Middle East exhibition in Sharjah, forming the vision of Bee’ah’s new strategic objectives. Bee’ah’s mandate entails the application of international best practices in environmental and waste management throughout the emirate to resolve existing environmental challenges. Bee’ah is also focused on implementing effective waste management procedures that significantly reduce the risks of disease outbreaks and enhance the environment in Sharjah and the UAE at large.
“It’s clear that zero-waste is the way forward. The most sustainable countries in the world are already implementing best practices and technology to attain zero-waste. In anticipation to fulfill the mandate conceptualized by our visionary leader, Bee’ah is at the forefront of leading environmental change within our region and we are confident that this goal will be attained.” commented H.E. Salim Al Owais, Chairman of Bee’ah.
The company’s strategic objectives will lead to the treatment of all the waste collected through Bee’ah’s recycling facilities, to turn it into reusable material and put it back into the economy. These treatment initiatives will include waste to energy technology, organic composting, metal recycling and further initiatives for the treatment of other types of waste streams.
“All the commitments and strategic objectives for the last five years have focused on recovery, allowing us to already achieve 34% of waste diversion from the landfill. Now it is time to take the next step and prepare for our new strategic objectives to treat waste and convert it into useful material, with a commitment to achieve zero-waste to landfill by 2015.” said Khaled Al Huraimel, Chief Executive Officer.
In the presence of His Excellency Dr Rashid Ahmad bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water at the Green Middle East exhibition, Bee’ah also announced the expansion of its residential recycling programme to include villas and low-rise residential areas across the city of Sharjah, by signing contracts worth over 100 million dirham in new tools and equipments.
As the first company to bring residential recycling to the UAE, starting at the beginning of 2012, Bee’ah will expand its residential recycling programme to areas throughout the city of Sharjah.
“Residential Recycling is the final step in completing our recovery strategy, and complements Bee’ah’s mission which is to bring the most innovative recycling programmes to the Emirate of Sharjah. We are always exploring ways to facilitate recycling for the residents of Sharjah who require simple and easy tools to do so.” said Mr. Al Huraimel.
“Internationally, this type of recycling programme has worked tremendously well, resulting in more recyclables taken out of the general waste stream and the quantity of recyclables increases while residual waste decreases,” commented Al Huraimel. “We have already received a great response from the first phase of the programme in residential towers, and expect that the new phase will resound in a great success.”
Bee’ah confirmed this commitment by signing contracts worth 100 million dirhams to introduce all new blue and green coloured plastic bins which will replace the current metal single stream municipal waste bins. In addition to new collection and cleaning vehicles brought especially from Europe, including bin washers, bin side-loaders and street cleaners, equipped with the state-of-the-art technologies, to ensure higher efficiency and better collection operation throughout the streets of Sharjah.
The shift from the current waste collection system to the dual-stream recycling process would mean residents will be tossing all recyclables – paper, cardboard, glass, plastics and aluminium – into a blue single container while all other general waste will be deposited in the other green container. As a result, the current diversion rate of 34% is expected to increase, turning away less waste from the landfill, while valuable recyclables are sent for recycling.
Bee’ah and its strategic partner, the Sharjah Municipality, has since 2009, successfully transformed the Al Saj’ah landfill at Bee’ah’s WMC into a safe disposal site that represents an entirely new approach to waste management in the region. Bee’ah has built sophisticated waste management infrastructure and facilities at Al Saj’ah for systematic segregation and waste processing, implementation of widespread clean-up operations across Sharjah by Tandeef, installation of additional 3-stream pedestrian recyclers and the launch of various recycling programmes to encourage Sharjah residents to incorporate the 3Rs (reduce, re-use and recycle) into their lifestyle.
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