Waste Reduction in the United Arab Emirates Case Study

Accumulation of waste is a challenging issue for many countries all over the world. The problem is particularly daunting in rapidly developing economies. Economic growth and increasing population inevitably result in greater amounts of material waste. Adverse effects of waste accumulation on environment and economy have been observed by many researchers (Wilson 2006, Nemerow 2009). For this reason, governments, corporations, and communities in different countries have been concerned to reduce their waste (Marshall & Farahbakhsh 2013). Waste reduction is an especially relevant challenge for the United Arab Emirates, where the amount of waste grows significantly every year. There are different strategies and approaches to waste reduction. They apply to every stage of waste production and waste management. These strategies and approaches take into consideration the cultural and behavioral aspects of societies, as well as policies, legislation, infrastructure and technology. In order to approach the complex task of waste reduction in the UAE, it is important to describe and understand the current waste situation (identify the problem), to define its reasons (identify causes), and finally propose recommendations based on the experience of successful waste reduction from UAE as well as from other countries.

Abundance of Waste in the UAE

Comparing to 6.6 million tons of waste generated by the UAE in 2010, the expected amount in 2017 is 8.4 million tons (Al Bustani 2014), which is a 27-percent increase. In Abu Dhabi in 2013, the average of waste production per person was between 1.8 kg and 2.4 kg (4 lb and 5.3 lb) a day, which is almost twice as much as in the United Kingdom (Todorova 201). In Dubai, this average was 2.03 kg (4.48 lb) of waste per person per day in 2015 (Badam 2016). What is meant by ‘waste’ in this statistics is what actually goes to the landfill. The situation is rather alerting in virtually every area of waste production. For example, in 2013, 750 million plastic bottles were thrown in the trash, which ranks third highest among all countries, while only 10-12 percent was recycled (Berengueres et al. 2013). Another example is food. It constitutes 30-55 percent of all waste across the UAE. Each Ramadan, 30 days of fasting every year, about 1,850 tons of food are disposed of in Dubai, which is almost 1 kg of food thrown in the trash by an average resident (Al Bustani 2014). Overall, the waste management data in the UAE show that the amount of waste is increasingly problematic, which thus increases the significance of waste reduction.

Causes

Identification of causes of waste abundance is the first step in the waste management strategic planning. Generally defined, the reason of growing amounts of waste in the UAE is the rapid economic development and the population inflow. The number of people grows, and they can afford to buy more goods, which naturally increases the amount of waste they produce. It leads to a larger demand for waste management services. The brand and marketing director of one of the waste management companies operating in the UAE, Patrick Lloyd-Bradley, says, “Don’t think that for a business like us that the more waste there is, the better we are” (Al Bustani 2014). Lloyd-Bradley explains that his company is rather interested in putting the waste back into the system. For this purpose, companies of this sector express their readiness to consult the UAE government and related companies on how to manage waste in a more efficient and sustainable way. Al Bustani (2014) points out three main categories of reasons for the current waste situation in the UAE: government legislation, infrastructure, and behavior. Any waste reduction recommendations should consider all these three areas.

Legislation Recommendations

The first area of possible recommendations for waste reduction in the UAE is government legislation and policies. According to Al-Hajj and Hamani (2011), surveys show that most respondents in the UAE think that government legislation and policies are the main indirect cause of waste and the main barrier to the reduction of waste generated on construction sites. Overview of the international experience shows that the waste management policy development in the modern world is primarily associated with 3R: reduce, reuse, and recycle. The driving force for the introduction of 3R policies in the EU, as well as in other countries, particularly Japan, Korea, and China, was the difficulty to obtain sites for a landfill. It caused the efforts to prevent final disposal in landfills (Sakai et al. 2011). Thus, when governments make it more difficult or less affordable to have landfills, it should serve as an incentive to reduce waste, as well as to reuse it and recycle.

Lloyd-Bradley points out that landfills are rather profitable in the UAE, and undermining their cost-effectiveness will increase the number of recyclables (Al Bustani 2014). Another important legislative strategy that proved its effectiveness, according to the international experience, is public-private partnership. As it was pointed out earlier, waste management companies are not interested in growing amounts of waste, but rather in reusing and recycling. Reusing and recycling, at the same time, is also in the interest of governments and communities. Their multilateral cooperation is the key to successful waste reduction. And the way to coordinate this cooperation is through mutually beneficial government policies. Policy making and enforcement differ from country to country based on current situation and historical background (Sakai et al. 2011), but the general principal is introducing more sustainable practices that are ultimately beneficial to governments, businesses, and societies.

Infrastructure Recommendations

Another area of recommendations is infrastructure. Even with all the necessary laws adopted, waste reduction will not advance without appropriate infrastructure. It includes, first of all, collecting and sorting the waste. It is a challenge for countries with waste abundance, and it may lead to growing efforts to build such infrastructure. Wilson (2007, p. 202) writes, “In the absence of strong legislation, competition between cities, to provide a ‘clean city’ with good municipal environmental infrastructure, in order to attract (often foreign) investment can be a key driver.” Ludwig et al. (2012) emphasize the importance of the disposal infrastructure in developing countries, as they describe how the creation of a well-organized waste management system, including collection, transportation, and sorting of waste, as well as establishment and development of various services like municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI), help bring the overall waste management to higher standards. Along with the infrastructure, the development of technology is necessary, as the two work together. Mohammad Jarrar, a compost engineer, says, “The technology is still growing but there are no fully integrated solutions. We’re still using manual labour” (Al Bustani 2014). At the same time, Jarrar, as the only client of his company is the Dubai Municipality, stresses that cooperation between businesses and local authorities is crucial for the successful development of technology and infrastructure.

Behavior Recommendations

The most challenging area of necessary change, however, is behavior. Societies’ cultures are usually regarded as a deeper layer of their organization than institutions. Modifying behavior takes long-term efforts, a significant part of which is education. In UAE, however, educative initiatives are additionally complicated by the specific characteristics of the population. Mahmood Rasheed, the chief operating officer of a waste management company working in Dubai, describes Dubai as a “metropolitan city,” where “people come from all over the world and by the time you go and educate people and raise awareness, the turnover is so fast that there’s new people and you have to start again” (Al Bustani 2014). Due to such turnover, many environmental awareness campaigns in the UAE cities experience significant difficulties with the long-term results. For example, there was a project in a particular district of Dubai, where waste management flyers would be brought to every household.

The idea was that households are where things are thrown in the trash and the trash is taken out. But, again, residents moved in and out so fast that more sustainable practices, if adopted in particular households, did not last (Al Bustani 2014). A better approach to education would be teaching children about sustainability and recycling in schools and even kindergartens. Enhancing this practice is an important opportunity for waste reduction. Another significant aspect of the cultural change is that, for effective waste reduction, individuals would need to change their everyday behavior. McKenzie-Mohr (2013) calls it “overcoming” and points out small things, like walking a little bit longer to use a recycling bin instead of a regular one, or turning the water off while you brush your teeth.

Overcoming is not only about a person’s own resistance to discomfort and having to give up what they are used to, but also about the resistance of people around. For example, a person’s colleagues can resist to new, more sustainable practices that this person proposes for the office. However, such overcoming does not have to be painful. Promoting some types of sustainable behavior is not about sacrificing, but about rewarding. For example, in 2013, so-called “emo-bins” were tested in the UAE. Those are recycling bins for plastic bottles that have a screen with a “poker face” emoticon on them and an audio system. When a bottle is thrown into them, the face changes to a smile for a second and a coin sound from a platform game is played. In average, these bins collected three times as many bottles as regular bins. They proved to be even more effective than material incentives (Berengueres et al. 2013), demonstrating that emotional engagement and gamification are strong tools for change of behavior.

Conclusion

Waste abundance is a major challenge for the United Arab Emirates. The reason of waste abundance is that the economy has been rapidly growing, while there were no adequate conditions—institutional, cultural, or otherwise—for a sustainable waste management. To reduce its waste production, the UAE, first of all, should adopt legislation to encourage businesses and communities to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste. Second, the waste management infrastructure should be improved and the technology should be advanced, for which, again, the collaboration with the private sector is crucial. Third, people should be educated and encouraged to adopt more environmentally friendly behaviors in terms of waste. According to the international experience, the combination of measures in these three areas helps achieve successful waste reduction.

References

Al Bustani, H 2014, ‘The UAE’s war on waste’, The National, Web.

Al-Hajj, A, & Hamani, K 2011, ‘Material Waste in the UAE Construction Industry: Main Causes and Minimisation Practices’, Architectural Engineering and Design Management, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 221-235.

Badam, R T 2016, ‘Dubai landfill charges to encourage businesses to recycle’, The National, Web.

Berengueres, J, Alsuwairi, F, Zaki, N & Ng, T 2013, Gamification of a recycle bin with emoticons, Web.

Ludwig, C, Hellweg, S & Stucki, S 2012, Municipal solid waste management: Strategies and technologies for sustainable solutions, Springer Science & Business Media, New York.

Marshall, R E & Farahbakhsh, K 2013, ‘Systems approaches to integrated solid waste management in developing countries’, Waste Management, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 988-1003.

McKenzie-Mohr, D 2013, Fostering sustainable behavior: An introduction to community-based social marketing, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island.

Nemerow, N L 2009, Environmental engineering: environmental health and safety for municipal infrastructure, land use and planning, and industry, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.

Sakai, S I, Yoshida, H, Hirai, Y, Asari, M, Takigami, H, Takahashi, S, Tomoda, K, Peeler, M V, Wejchert, J, Schmid-Unterseh, T & Douvan, A R 2011, ‘International comparative study of 3R and waste management policy developments’, Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 86-102.

Todorova, V 2013, ‘UAE working hard to reduce waste’, The National, Web.

Wilson, D C 2007, ‘Development drivers for waste management’, Waste Management & Research, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 198-207.