Abu Dhabi residents warm up to can collection drive

Gulf News reported that a campaign to collect aluminum cans and send them for recycling has saved a huge amount of carbon emissions and reduced energy consumption over the past 15 years.

The Emirates Environmental Group's annual can collection campaign since 1997 has resulted in the mitigation of around 2,231.611 tonnes of carbon dioxide and has saved an estimated energy of 33,836.27 billion MTU.

Ms Habiba Al Marashi EEG chairperson said that emptied beverage cans are not waste materials but valuable raw materials. Recycling aluminum needs only five per cent of the energy required to derive it from its raw material bauxite ore. However an estimated half a billion cans are sold annually in the UAE but only 5% of these are sent for recycling as against the average 63 per cent recycled worldwide.

According to the Centre of Waste Management in Abu Dhabi, the UAE economy is losing AED 1.5 billion every year due to inadequate recycling of waste. Thousands of volunteers from various government departments, educational institutions, hotels, companies, labour accommodations, social organizations and families responded to the call to drop their cans at eight drop off points across the country on Thursday.

Ms Al Marashi said that "Inculcating the culture of recycling is the ultimate goal of this exercise. We want to create a society with a sense of responsibility and amity to save our Mother Earth's natural resources."