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Used ball pens to be collected, recycled

DUBAI - The Environment and Health Education Office at Dubai Municipality in co-ordination with a private company has organised a programme to collect used ball pens from Tuesday onwards.

Sara Al Sayegh, Head of the Environment and Health Education Office, said that these ball pens are made of plastic materials that are not biodegradable and everyday millions of these pens are being thrown away worldwide.

"Some times, these pens are given up before the ink is finished. In order to collect these pens, Dubai Municipality has placed a box at its main building to deposit them in it. The private company will collect the pens every month and take it for recycling," she said.

Sara Al Sayegh added that the municipality has been organising many such programmes and campaigns as a step towards preserving the safety of the environment and also to reduce the amount of waste being thrown out everyday.

"The quantity of these wastes is increasing day by day and reducing this quantity by a considerable margin is among the important steps that should be taken by each and everybody in order to get rid of this problem," she said.

She pointed out that the Environment and Health Education Office has taken up this programme after imbibing enthusiasm from the success of the previous programme of collecting paper waste and sending it for recycling.

Sara Al Sayegh said that the municipality has provided cardboard boxes to each employee to collect used papers. "This paper waste is later taken away by the private company for recycling. This is one of the most successful programmes taken up by the the civic body, which is the pioneer in this field among other government departments," she said.