Talking all that trash

The Director of Waste Management Services from Dulsco speaks about how better recycling facilities need to be built-in to towers.

RELATED ARTICLES: Waste Summit to be held at The Palladium | EAD sweeps up 1 tonne of waste in Abu Dhabi | Trashco to crack down on illegal dumping

What is the main problem associated with collecting from buildings in Dubai?
When the access to the building’s waste management was planned, designers rarely think of the space required or easy access to the equipment.

You see most of the hotels and apartments, the vehicle cannot access the garbage area in the basement section because the height is so low and it becomes very troublesome for the people to do it twice or three times a day. Just getting the bins out can be a problem, so it is a design issue.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

Can you tell me about the waste management plant?
The types of equipment we use are portable compactors, static compactors, mobile compactors (dustcarts), balers and various different types of recycling bins.

We haven’t found a major change in demand for any particular truck, but what we have found that the smaller versions of the vehicles are better to use than the heavy equipment. In Dubai you see a lot of vans at different times, and that brings down the utilization of the vehicle. If your vehicle is small it can be used 24 hours a day.

Are the values of recyclables high enough to justify costs?
At this point of time, as far as the value of the recyclables are concerned, it is not viable for people like us as the transportation costs are much higher than the price [from the waste.] The second thing is that people don’t take much interest in investing for themselves – let’s say for example in purchasing recycling bins.

We need to have some small investment done [by residents]. For example, if I’m managing a development of 10,000 villas then for me, the price of giving those bins away becomes a huge cost of investment to provide separate bins for recycling paper, plastic and tins.

Whereas, if the household invests it would probably be a one-time cost of 500 dirhams – it is easy for them, but this initiative is not taken by the people, because the responsibility is not there.

In the industry, it is usually cheaper to buy new, raw materials than using recycled. Unless there is a law which is strict on this and says that at least 20% of the [carton] has to come from recycled sources. The second thing is the issue of record keeping. At the moment it is very lax, and you don’t know how many tins, paper or plastics are coming [on stream]. Record keeping is also an issue.

Are you involved in landfill management?
No, at the present time we are not involved in landfill management. We are involved with the recycling and transportation, but not the landfill management.

Is there anything that you think FM managers of big tower blocks could do to promote recycling at source?
One thing that I learned from the authorities is that a certain percentage should be recycled, whether it be 5%, 10% or 20% depending on the industry. It has to be recycled or reused again. Number two is the clear direction of what needs to be recycled. We cannot go in the same direction as Europe where they recycle seven different types of plastic and seven different containers, we can’t do that straight away, but at least the basics should be there.

Is there anything available to help them?
This year we also launched our waste handling trading division, for general waste as well as recyclables, so we have a few products at the exhibition, mainly recycling bins but also balers for recyclables, which could be plastic or tins. The waste, we need to minimize and sort at source, rather than segregation post-collection. In Europe and western countries you will see that this is the only process that needs to be followed, to get the quality of recyclables.

What other challenges are there in encouraging recycling?
The population here, the turnaround ratio is very high. For every person that enters on a visa, another leaves. In two and a half, or three years, the person is gone and you have to educate the next!

What actually happens to recyclables?
When the recyclables are collected, they are then sorted, for example the different coloured glass. Then some are recycled and used here, paper for example. It is plastic and glass and other material, they are bailed and exported. Mostly it goes to India, China and those markets.

About Dulsco
Dulsco is one of the firms that operates a huge behind-the-scenes logistics operation to make sure the garbage is disposed from buildings without the occupants being aware of it. Emaar, Nakheel, DAFZA and DP World are among the group’s clients.