Dubai is leading the trend in terms of electronic waste recycling

This initiative that stems from the Dubai Municipality’s commitment to promote integrated and effective sustainable waste management practices and thereby enhance the environmental and health standards of the Emirate of Dubai, falls under Averda Group’s commitment to protect the environment, minimize the quantity of waste that cannot be reused or recycled and to ensure that our partners are provided with the latest technological developments in the field of waste management.

Averda Dubai has provided the Municipality of Dubai with smart e-waste bins during 2014 – 2015, the bins being equipped with sensors that interact live, online, with Averda Dubai Operations Department, via GPRS. The bins’ intelligent systems provide the desk-based analysts with data related to their filling level and expected dates for collection. In addition to the smart e-bins already provided, Averda will commission additional bins in the very near future.

With a capacity of 1 cubic meter, the e-bins collect small electronic items such as mobile phones, tablets, trimmers, laptops, hair dryers, chargers and any other type of electronic items that can fit into the anti-scavengers bin lid of 40x40 cm. Any waste that is categorized by Dubai Municipality as hazardous, such as light bulbs and batteries, is not accepted for disposal in the e-bins.

All items collected, except for laptops, are sorted in Averda Dubai’s waste processing facilities and handed over to one of Averda’s recycling partners for appropriate recycling. The laptops are being collected and delivered to Dubai Municipality whom will attempt to refurbish them and hand them out for free to those who come from socially disadvantaged groups.

Mr Oussama Natour, Averda’s United Arab Emirates Managing Director, said: “In the past years, the level of electronic waste has seen an unprecedented increase. E-waste is an important global environmental and health issue and we need to identify better methods and means of not just disposing of the e-waste but, most importantly, reusing and recycling it, primarily given that the United Nations Environmental Programme estimates that between 2007 and 2020, the domestic television e-waste will double, computer e-waste will increase five times and cell phones waste will increase 18 times.”