Effective Waste Management Solutions by Imdaad: A Step Towards a Greener Dubai

Environmentalism is a core part of the UAE’s national goals, with the “We the UAE 2031” project calling for the country to be “A world leader in environmental sustainability.” Waste management and waste reduction has always been an important, everyday part of this project, with the previous Vision 2021 plan promoting a dramatic reduction in waste sent to landfills. Imdaad proudly plays its role in these efforts, with 33 years of experience in responsible waste management.

The Full Waste Management Package

As well as building up experience, Imdaad uses both a broad and deep approach to waste management for businesses. The breadth comes from its range of both general and specialist services, including hazardous and biomedical waste management and construction waste. The depth comes from offering an end-to-end service that means businesses don’t need to source separate suppliers for different elements of their waste management. The Imdaad Environmental Services offering includes waste collection, tracking, recycling, and reporting, making it easier for businesses to track their progress towards corporate sustainability.

Recovering Recyclables

The Imdaad Group has its own dedicated Material Recoveries Facility, FARZ. It’s a fully automated sorting system that can work even with completely mixed materials such as municipal solid waste. The system can identify and recover recyclable and reusable materials from PET and HDPE plastics to aluminium and ferrous materials. At the full capacity of sorting 1,200 tonnes of material a day, Farz reduces carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 19,250 Kg by reducing the need to manufacture new materials. In 2023, the Farz facility also begun to generate sustainable fuel for industry through their new RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) plant.

Impact on Dubai's Sustainability Goals

Imdaad now handles more than 800,000 tons of waste per year, including 500 tons of medical waste and 48,000 gallons of used oil. Handling this amount of material in an environmentally responsible manner makes a meaningful contribution to UAE’s national efforts in its own right. However, it also sets an example and shows what is possible. It inspires businesses and organizations to make their own efforts to reduce unnecessary waste and lost resources that could be reclaimed, reused, and recycled.

Education And Awareness

Environmental responsibility is not just a business strategy for Imdaad. It’s a core ethos and one that it promotes across society, particularly to the next generation.

For example, during its annual Envirocare month, Imdaad hosts competitions across schools and businesses to boost recycling. In some years the battle for prizes has increased recycling across participating organizations by 40 percent over normal levels. As an eye-catching way to inspire, Imdaad staff even ran their own handicraft competition to use waste materials to create practical household items.

Throughout the year, Imdaad runs a corporate social responsibility program titled Be’ati. This involves going into schools (with the popular mascot Khadour) to raise environmental awareness. The key to the program is bridging the gap between the individual and global scales, helping children understand how their individual actions and changes can contribute to the overall efforts of the UAE, the region, and the wider world.

Looking To The Future

Imdaad never stops looking for ways to raise its environmental performance and impact, improving existing technologies and harnessing new ones. In recent years Imdaad’s technology experts have been particularly excited by the potential of artificial intelligence. Dedicated tools could spot and develop patterns to find new ways to improve processes and make them more efficient.

Meanwhile IoT (Internet of Things) sensors are rapidly becoming small and cost-effective enough to install into systems as standard practice. That makes it possible to gather all manner of useful data, for example showing which bin locations are most used (and even what goes into them) or what would be the most efficient route for collections. Adding an understanding of human behaviour to this data can educate and inspire, for example, telling people in a specific department or location how much impact their recycling has had.

Conclusion

By setting clearly defined, ambitious but achievable environmental goals, UAE is establishing a culture that inspires individuals and organizations to play their part. Promoting environmental awareness and harnessing data means everyone can understand how their actions can make a meaningful impact on the nation’s efforts.

While some environmental projects may be more spectacular and eye-catching, waste management is one of the most important environmental battles that is fought every day. Imdaad is proud to play its role in this battle, both through the direct effects it has on boosting recycling and the wider example it sets to inspire others that they really can make a difference.