UAE is ‘smartly’ creating a sustainable future

IN TRUE UAE STyLE, RECyCLING IS NoT JUST FoR A CoRNER BIN — IT’S A ToURIST ATTRACTIoN

Just like how ‘with great power comes great responsibility’, with massive development comes a massive carbon footprint. According to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), the average Dubai resident consumes 20,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year. The carbon dioxide emitted per year has dropped from 32.6 tonnes in 1990 to 21.9 tonnes in 2010 — there’s a long way to go. Of course, Dubai’s up for the challenge.

The recycling bins around the city are equipped with sensors that collect data through GPRS technology. Your trash isn’t just sorted; it’s smartly sorted, collected, and re-sorted into valuable raw materials. The Green Truck comes to collect junk from your doorstep. Bypassing a landfill, the so-called waste material is forwarded to companies that can use it in production.

Popular attractions are constructed entirely out of recycled material, which actually forms the USP to keep people coming back for more. There’s BoxPark that’s made up entirely of repurposed shipping containers — who would’ve thought that a trendy boutique could be housed within a port area staple? There’s the favourite family hangout spot — Dubai Garden Glow, where each art installation that’s made out of recycled material competes for your attention.

Thinking of waste as a resource is what’s fuelling colossal undertakings such as The Sustainable City in Dubai and the Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, both aiming for net zero waste production. Bus stops, mosques, and streetlights are going solar, and even schools are signing up for solar panels on the roof. This has become an excellent opportunity to complete the clean energy cycle — students are getting inspired to use energy in new ways, understand organic farming, and working on projects such as a completely recycled room that costs ‘zero’ to recreate.

While the digitally inclined population can already donate old mobile phones, tablets, and laptops in special bins around the city as well as at Dubai Municipality centres, there’s also the 228,000 sq.ft. electronic waste recycling plant being constructed at Dubai Industrial Park by Enviroserve. This will ensure that toxic chemicals from dumped electronics do not end up adding to landfills.

Whether it’s donating your old clothes or living in a smart and sustainable city, Dubai is the place that makes it happen. letters@khaleejtimes.com