Dubai family shows zero tolerance for the plastic lifestyle
▶ Gillian Duncan meets a family who are determined to reduce almost entirely the amount of rubbish they produce
A family that has shunned plastic and packaging in a quest to become a nowaste household hopes it can convince others to follow.
Amruta Kshemkalyani refuses plastic bags in supermarkets and takes her own jars and containers to fill up with produce.
“At the start I had to educate people a lot,” said the mother of one from Dubai. “Now they see me and they know to weigh the empty jar first so I can add whatever I need to add – lentils, nuts, cheese.”
In a country where a half dozen plastic bags are often provided for a handful of shopping items, her fight is a start in tackling a much bigger problem.
A growing population has led to an increasing problem with waste. Most ends up in municipal landfills or dumpsites, where organic waste generates a large amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, the UAE government states.
In 2016, 9.6 million tonnes of solid waste was generated by Abu Dhabi residents, and almost Dh14.7 billion of leftover food is being thrown into the rubbish by homes, restaurants and events every year.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment launched a campaign to encourage residents to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle ahead of Earth Day on April 22.
It urges shoppers to reuse containers and bags and recycle in areas where facilities are available.
“We all have the responsibility to ensure the smart use of plastic by raising awareness on the principles of the three Rs, which in turn will contribute to a better future for our children and future generations,” Environment Minister Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi said.
Amruta Kshemkalyani used to argue with supermarket staff on a regular basis and it was always about the same thing – food containers.
Mrs Kshemkalyani, a sustainability consultant in Dubai, started living a no-waste lifestyle three years ago.
“I don’t claim that I have achieved zero waste completely but I have significantly reduced waste,” she says. “And I am still targeting zero waste,” she says.
“I use as many ingredients from kitchen or food scraps for beauty and personal care as I can for making scrubs, shampoo and so on. I still buy a few things like toothpaste, but I always try to find more natural or sustainable alternatives.”
Aspiring to a no-waste lifestyle means avoiding the plastic containers supermarkets provide for produce. She takes her own jars and bags to the shops.
“At the start I had to educate people a lot,” says the mother of one, who writes a blog on her sustainable lifestyle. “Now they see me and they know to weigh the empty jar first so I can add whatever I need to add – lentils, nuts, cheese.”
Her regular supermarkets now know the drill but occasionally new employees need her training, and there are still some coffee shops that refuse to pour into her containers.
“So then I abandon that and I go to the places where they are ready to give it to me in my containers,” says Mrs Kshemkalyani, who has been working in the industry since 2009.
But some supermarkets are making an effort to reduce their environmental impact by offering reusable or biodegradable plastic bags.
A spokesman for Carrefour said the supermarket used biodegradable bags as standard in all 90 of its UAE shops.
“The bags are oxo-biodegradable, which means they degrade faster than others and do so naturally – that is, they degrade through exposure to oxidation and without need for a biological process.
“The company also sells re-usable eco-bags in different sizes at each cash till.”
The spokesman said the company was investing heavily to reduce its environmental impact, including new business management systems to reduce its energy use.
A growing population has led to an increasing problem with waste. In 2016, 9.6 million tonnes of solid waste was generated by Abu Dhabi residents, while Dubai produces almost 8,000 tonnes of waste a day, about 75 per cent of which is generated by the private sector.
And almost Dh14.7 billion of leftover food is being thrown into the rubbish by homes, restaurants and events every year, which equates to about 3.27 million tonnes in total, a Masdar Institute Report from 2015 states.
Government measures to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill include an initiative in Dubai where fees at tips are charged based on the weight of the waste, starting next month.
But some companies in the UAE are also trying to help businesses and residents live more sustainably.
A couple of years ago, Emvees Waste Water Treatment in Dubai teamed up with Advetec Holdings from the UK to sell technology that substantially reduces the amount of organic, typically food, waste that goes to landfill.
The system uses bacteria that thrive only at high temperatures to break down the food, reducing the amount of waste by about 70 to 75 per cent, says Mathew Tharakan, a chemical engineer and the owner of Emvees.
“When you have mixed solid waste we can still throw it into the machine, and it will eat up all the organics and leave the inorganics alone,” Mr Tharakan says.
The end product looks a bit like coffee powder and can be used as a soil conditioner, he said. A machine with a capacity of 1 tonne costs about Dh375,000.
Business was slow at first but is now beginning to pick up, Mr Tharakan says. Hotels are particularly keen and the business is receiving a lot of online inquiries from companies that are interested in corporate social responsibility.
“I am very confident that from this year onwards it should be a leap forwards in terms of management of solid waste,” he says.
Fellow entrepreneur Peter Avram, a partner and managing director at Avani Eco Middle East, is seeing double-digit growth of his company’s sustainable packaging.
The company makes shopping bags, food packaging and ponchos out of cassava, tapioca and other natural products. It brought the concept, which started in Indonesia, to the UAE in October.
“We ran out of samples very quickly,” says Mr Avram, a Romanian who has been living in the Emirates for more than 20 years.
The company has about 10 clients including the Marriott, Hyatt and Jumeirah hotel groups. Mr Avram used to be director of operations for Jumeirah Group.
“In 2012 we got a memo saying that we cannot use plastic or foam any more in any of the hotel operations, in the staff canteen or any of the banquets,” he says.
“So I thought, what are we going to use if not this?”
“There were no options for straws and very little options for cups, only paper. And even the paper was lined with plastic. So there was no real alternative.
“Now, thank goodness, there are.”