Etihad plays its part to reduce waste and promote recycling

As the population of UAE grows, so does the waste generated by the Emirates, said experts from Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) on Tuesday. EAD has released a booklet named 'Sustainable Waste Management for Organisations' that highlights the benefits of reusing materials, reducing waste and recycling end products to help UAE become more proactive in developing environmental practices. Although much of this waste is generated from demolition and construction sites, packaging too is a major contributor, adding 70 tons of waste each month according to Linden Coppell, Head of Sustainability at Etihad.

"This is bundled and sent for recycling, together with nearly 30 tonnes per month of in-flight newspapers and magazines. In addition, about 25 tonnes of glass items, primarily bottles, are recovered for recycling every month from the Etihad fleet."

The entire organization, especially the cabin crew, comes together to make this process a success. They collect about 4,000 plastic bottles and 400 aluminium cans everyday and send them for recycling.

Ms Coppell believes recycling should be included in the corporate plan of any organization as an integral part of the business and hopes that the guidelines issued by EAD on Monday will help other organizations to achieve that goal.