Dubai:EEG awarded the champions of the “Recycle.Reforest.Repeat” project on the 19th of September during a meaningful ceremony hosted by the Grand Millennium Hotel, Dubai. EEG’s Chairperson, Mrs. Habiba Al Mar’ashi addressed the champions of this programme for their diligence and efforts and awarded them with certificates of participation and with a sapling of an indigenous tree to be planted in their name, under EEG’s “For Our Emirates We Plant Initiative” on 19.12.19. A special token of appreciation was given to 66 student members, 33 corporate organisations and 29 academic institutions. The category champions that met their target and stood out for their prompt action and exemplary sustainable practices were also awarded.

 

Category Champion Paper Collection (kg)

Corporation AG Melco Elevator Co LLC 9,355

Educational Institution Our Own High School,

Al Warqa'a, Dubai 8,824

Individual Nia Treeza Tony 2,080

 

Mrs. Habiba Al Mar’ashi Chairperson of EEG, in her opening speech shared the incredible improvements of this project since inception in terms of participation; she said “The project witnessed an increase in participation from 61 participating entities in 2016 to 246 participating entities this year. In addition to that, there was an astounding increase in collections over the last few years, the participants collectively deposited 178,806 kg of paper in 2019 a huge increase from the collection of 17,639 kg of paper in 2016.”

 

This year, the theme of World Day to Combat Desertification was “Let’s Grow a Future Together”, which also coincidentally aligned with EEG’s slogan - “Together for A Better Environment”. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the presence of desertification and drought, highlighting methods of preventing desertification and recovering from drought. As an accredited organisation, Emirates Environmental Group has joined hands with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and foster local afforestation efforts in the region. The organisation rolled out its popular project “Recycle. Reforest. Repeat” from the 19th of June until the 19th of July, with the goal of engaging its student, academic and corporate members and encouraging them to take action towards reversing land degradation. Paper was chosen as the targeted commodity to be recycled as it would allow additional prevention of trees being felled through actively recycling and using recycled paper instead of virgin ones, thereby reducing deforestation and further helping combat desertification. 

 

 

She further elaborated that “The objective of the “Recycle. Reforest. Repeat” project is to create awareness at the grass root level on the need to preserve the environment by engaging the community in a constructive activity with a specific target to accomplish. The target of paper collections was 750kgs of paper for corporate and academic members and 350kgs of paper for student members. The project witnessed a 303% increase in participation since inception that effectively backed the global contributions to sustainable development goals by their local actions. The paper deposited over during the one-month period led to a staggering 914% increase in collections. The recycling of the collected paper resulted in the mitigation of 690 MT of carbon dioxide and saved 4,007 million BTU of energy, 564 m3 of landfill space and 3,035 trees from being felled.” 

 

This project acted as an effective means to educate people on the need for suitable waste management practices - specifically to rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle. It highlighted the need for more such action platforms to engage the different members of the society to contribute to energy and land conservation and to the reduction of pollution. As a UN accredited organisation, EEG has also been able to successfully implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 12, 13, 15 and 17, which encompasses targets related to sustainable consumption practices, climate actions, life on land and effective partnerships through the successful execution of this programme in the region. 

 

EEG chairperson called upon the society at large to make such recycling practices a regular and consistent feature all year round, advocating the importance of inclusive cooperation to restore and rehabilitate degraded land and contribute towards achieving the overall Sustainable Development Goals.