The waste management programmes organised by the EEG—the Emirates Environmental Group—continue to be unparalleled successes. In addition to promoting awareness and integrating recycling into daily life, these programmes have evolved over the years beyond the basic tenets of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ and now also embrace the principle of circularity.
The Group’s programmes now include collecting paper, plastic, glass, aluminium cans, toner cartridges, mobile phones, E-waste, scrap metal, and—only recently added—tin. As an active member of UNEP, EEG also strives to ensure the integration of relevant UN SDGs throughout the year across all its campaigns.
In 2023, these initiatives exceeded targets in each of the collected materials. This year, they look to be on course to do the same.
As one of the most abundantly used man-made substances, plastics offer many benefits, next to bringing challenges. One of the biggest is the end of life. All plastic is recyclable in theory but in practice, with over 50 different types of plastic in the market, the level of difficulty of recycling varies.
According to the Resin Identification Coding System, plastics can be classified into seven codes, out of which only three are easily recycled. These include beverage bottles, jars, jugs, bags, straws, carpets and containers. Packaging wraps, cleaning bottles, styrofoam cups, accessories, cutlery and electronics are more difficult to recycle.
EEG established the first Plastic Recycling Center on 5 June 2001, commemorating World Environment Day, and launched its ongoing Plastic Collection Campaign in September 2005. EEG provides collection points for individuals, recycling facilities for schools, and recycling bins for corporations to motivate people to recycle plastic. The campaign has been highly successful since its inception and has recycled 1,634,479 kg of plastic through August 2024.