Sharjah: Bee’ah, the Middle East’s sustainability pioneer, has launched a new project to enhance waste segregation and recycling practices, to supplement the efforts of the company’s ongoing residential recycling programme. Through working closer with communities, the programme is designed to nurture environmental responsibility in UAE residents and encourage waste sorting at source. Starting from grass-root levels in the Al Rahmaniya, Bee’ah aims to bring the programme to all areas across Sharjah.

In 2012, Bee’ah had launched the UAE’s first Door-to-Door Residential Recycling programme, which supplied communities with awareness kits on recycling; and provided communal, color-coded bins to separate general and recyclable waste. The new programme takes this initiative to the next level, by giving each household a green and blue bin of their own. Green bins will be used for general waste, while blue bins will be used for recyclables, enabling efficient sorting of materials, leading to higher recovery and waste diversion rates. Residents will also be encouraged to attend sessions on recycling from Bee’ah experts at the community Majlis.

Stressing the importance of waste segregation and recycling, H.E Khaled Al Huraimel, Bee’ah’s Group CEO stated: “Bee’ah’s new recycling programme and waste collection services are meant to effectively serve the needs of communities across the UAE, providing ways and means to recycle waste and mitigate their impact on the environment, to pioneer a more sustainable quality of life. We have now achieved a waste diversion rate of 76% in Sharjah, and we hope to make Sharjah the region’s first zero-waste city by 2021. However, this ambition can only be realized through collective efforts, and it is very important for our community to be engaged in this progress. By helping them to segregate and recycle their waste, we believe we can work together towards making our homes and city cleaner, better, and more sustainable.”

Bee’ah will also be facilitating heavy waste disposal services through its “You Call We Haul” offering, that allows Sharjah residents to easily discard large-sized, bulky waste such as furniture and house appliances. The company also provides bulk bags, with a capacity of 1.5 tonnes each, for disposal of materials such as worn pots, trees, paintings, carpets and dead bushes, as part of its Green and Bulky Waste Collection Programme.

Collected waste from the recycling bins and bulk bags will be transported to the Bee’ah Waste Management Center, which houses some of the region’s most advanced facilities. The Bee’ah waste recovery and recycling arm will process waste to ensure it is recycled, recovered, regenerated, and put back into the economy.

Residents can book the ‘You Call We Haul’ service through the Bee’ah mobile application or through the Bee’ah Call Center and choose the time and date that the material is available for the collection. The Bee’ah Tandeef team will reach the location and remove the items with the help of their specialized fleet.

For residents availing of the Green and Bulky Waste Collection Programme, filled bulk bags should be placed at the street curb next to their homes; from where it will be collected by the Tandeef team between 9 and 11 am on Saturdays.

On average, UAE residents produce close to 2.7 kilograms of waste daily, one of the highest generation rates globally. On a yearly basis the country generates 6.5 million tonnes of waste, the equivalent weight of over fourteen Burj Khalifa buildings. With the UAE targeting a 75 per cent diversion rate from overused landfills as part of the ‘UAE Vision 2021’, residential recycling is essential to protect the environment and conserve valuable resources.