Schools in Abu Dhabi work to reduce waste

Photo By Nezar Balout

Don't pick up food more than you can eat, whether from the school cafeteria or the supermarket! This was the general message of three schools in Abu Dhabi emirate, which won this year's Less Waste, More Beautiful Emirate competition run by Tadweer, the Centre of Waste Management - Abu Dhabi.
The three schools whose impressive anti-waste campaign stood them apart this year are Nahel School (Al Ain), Umm Al Arab School (Abu Dhabi) and Al Khamael School (Al Gharbia). Their winning projects will be showcased at next year's Eco Waste exhibition, part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
"We commend the efforts of all the schools that participated in this programme, which aims to prepare a generation that is aware of economic and environmental benefits of reducing waste and converting it into resources," said Dr. Salem Al Kaabi, deputy general manager of Tadweer, during a ceremony held on Tuesday to honour the winners.
Started in 2014, the annual competition, run in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Education Council, aims to spread awareness among school students and teachers in government and private schools on how to deal with waste in a proper and sustainable way, by instilling the concepts and practices that target utilising waste, re-using and recycling it.
"We have developed awareness methods and content by focusing on waste sorting and reuse in 2015, where we educated nearly 440 schools, 970,000 students and nearly 12,000 teachers. The programme has also helped us qualify some students and teachers to cooperate with us in educating the community and the public," pointed out Al Kaabi.
According to him, Tadweer initiated awareness campaigns in 2012, meant to reduce waste all across the emirate targeting all segments of the society, from farmers to government offices, but the biggest focus was on schools.
"We are targeting schools the most because children are the future, they are the next generation, and they are also influencing those around them, especially parents and relatives," pointed out Al Kaabi.
All these efforts are starting to pay off, as per capita, waste is going down in Abu Dhabi, still, at 1.78 kilograms per person per day, the amount of waste produced is still pretty high.
"Commercially, the largest amount of waste produced is from construction and demolition, but at individual level it is organic waste, food," he told Khaleej Times.
Recent findings from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi Waste Master Plan 2040's Waste Characterisation Study estimate that food waste ranges from 35 per cent to roughly 50 per cent in some waste collection areas in the emirate.
"This is an important finding because we know that food waste has the potential to biodegrade without oxygen in landfills, producing Methane gas, which has 21 times greater GHG (greenhouse gas) polluting capacity than Carbon Dioxide," stressed Al Kaabi.
The study also indicated that 20 per cent of waste is paper or cardboard, and approximately 2.5 percent of Municipal Solid Waste generated across Abu Dhabi is primarily drink bottles and containers that are easily recyclable.
Extensive laboratory testing on waste samples was undertaken to assess the potential of waste for Waste to Energy and other applications.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com