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| The new bins outside my villa |
This
Thursday morning sees the launch of the latest “My City… My Environment”
campaign by the waste management department at Dubai Municipality.
Everyone
must have noticed the two plastic bins, one green and one black, in front of
all the villas, whether residential or commercial, in Jumeirah 1, 2, 3; Al Safa
1, 2; Umm Suqueim 1, 2, 3; Al Manara, Umm Al Sheif and Al Barsha 2, 3 areas.
Over
the past two weeks, the “Mr. Green Bin,” leaflets were widely circulated,
informing us that starting May 15, SITA Trashco will be distributing the bins.
Dubai
Municipality’s campaign aims to focus on the collection and segregation of
waste at source to reduce waste to landfill.
Hussein
Nasser Lootah told Emirates
24/7 and most media outlets the campaign “aims at introducing the best
practices for cleanliness and making Dubai a greener city. It also emphasizes
Dubai Municipality’s continuous efforts on high quality services to keep the
city clean.”
“This
door-to-door waste collection and recycling service for all the residents is a
unique initiative that will educate the public and allow them to help Dubai
Municipality in recycling the household waste in an efficient manner,” he
added.
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| The leaflet |
Dubai
Municipality has chosen Dulsco, Averda and Trashco as its strategic partners
for this “My City… My Environment” initiative.
The
two green and black 240-liter bins have clear instructions to help residents
separate the waste.
The
black bins will be collected every day and the green ones three days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The
leaflet clearly indicates what should go in each bin.
The green bins are for recyclables such as plastic containers, cardboard boxes (flattened out), newspapers,
magazines, books, papers, empty water glass and plastic bottles, aluminum and
metal cans as well as milk and juice bottles and cartons.
The
black bins are for all other types of general waste such as leftover food,
vegetable and fruit skins, meat, dairy products, fish waste, food contaminated
boxes, disposable cups, trays, containers, paper towels, napkins, eggshells,
nutshells, waste generated while sweeping etc…
Unfortunately,
along with this project, our friendly municipality street cleaner will no longer
operate in the 12 areas designated for the door-to-door collection and
recycling campaign.
The
street cleaner in my area had become a friend over the past eight years and
came to my rescue a couple of months ago while I was walking the dog with my
late friend. I will always be thankful to him for that.
Cleaners
from private companies Dulsco, Averda and Trashco will now take over the
complete waste management tasks from workers of Dubai Municipality which is
privatizing street cleaning services for the first time in the emirate.
The municipality will also discontinue the use
of large waste skips on the roads in these areas.
Now
it remains to be seen if and how residents and businesses respond to the
campaign and how the private companies will maintain cleanliness on our streets and the regular collection of the bins.
