Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has shared that since the launch of its recycling initiative, around 690 of DEWA’s employees recycled 656,315 plastic bottles and aluminium cans. According to the authority, this is equivalent to diverting 9.180 tonnes of waste from landfills.
This collection has been facilitated through DEWA’s smart machines, which are operated using DEWA’s Smart Office app. The machine reads the QR code on the smart app, and the employee receives points for each recycling operation, entering a raffle draw to win monthly prizes.
This initiative comes against a backdrop of rising plastic production and pollution.
Back in June, following the publishing of Planet Tracker’s recycling deception report, John Willis, Director of Research at Planet Tracker, urged for focus to be shifted to upstream solutions: “Upstream solutions, including extended producer responsibility, taxation and regulation, must be examined to create a sustainable path forward. Recycling alone is unable to cope with existing, let alone rising, plastic waste.”
Indeed, under a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, plastic production is set to triple by 2060, with emissions from plastic forecast to double by the same year. It is also worth noting that, at present, 91 per cent of plastic waste is not recycled, and according to the OECD, global plastic waste is set to almost triple by 2060.