Five-year campaign aims to beat litter

Abu Dhabi Municipality is planning an awareness campaign in an attempt to stamp out littering in the capital.

Abu Dhabi. 8th August 2008.Litter in Abu Dhabi street.

Abu Dhabi Municipality is planning an awareness campaign in an attempt to stamp out littering as the first step in a five-year waste management plan. Olabode Esan, the municipality's solid-waste management adviser, said littering "is one of the biggest problems we're addressing - educating the public on the impact of litter and trying to encourage them to recycle. It's a big problem." Each person in the capital produces an average of 730kg of rubbish a year compared with 725kg in Dubai, according to a 2006 report by Globe Net, a Canadian weekly market guide to environment and business. The average in the United States is 710kg.

The campaign, which is due to begin early next year, will educate the public on the environmental impact of littering and excessive production of waste, the importance of recycling and the value of having a clean city. The campaign would target everyone living in the capital, said Mr Esan, but would focus on young people because they had the ability to influence peers and families. The message will be spread by television and radio adverts, posters and "hands-on" activities, including visits to schools and workplaces.

"We're trying to stimulate the right actions and raise awareness of the environmental footprint," said Dr Jonathan West, an adviser to the municipality's general manager. "We want people to think about waste minimisation as well as throwing it out in the appropriate container." Waste management infrastructure, including recycling facilities, is being built. The new facilities are expected to be finished in time for the campaign's next stage, the action phase.

"We can't tell people to recycle, and not to litter, if there are no facilities," said Mr Esan. "But this plan is not haphazard at all. We're doing this in phases." Distribution of rubbish bins and collections are contracted out by the municipality. While Mr Esan could not confirm the number of rubbish bins in the city, he said the aim was that no pedestrian should have to walk more than 100 metres to find one.

The National found rubbish bins were few and far between on most of the city's main streets, with litter an all-too-familiar sight. Outside Starbucks on Muroor Road at Al Falah, a woman finished her drink in a plastic cup before tossing it on the ground as she opened the door to her large SUV. When asked why she chose to dispose of her cup on the street instead of using one of the rubbish bins in Starbucks, the woman simply gave a dirty look and drove away.

Alexander Larsen, 28, who works as a risk consultant for an oil company in Abu Dhabi, said he noticed a lot of litter on the capital's streets. "It's mostly along the side streets, near the supermarkets shops and residential areas," he said. However, a Norwegian man who has just arrived after working in Scotland for almost a decade said the litter was "not that bad, and usually gone the next day".

Kanny Tushcandran, from Sri Lanka, has cleaned the waste bins behind Hamdan Street for four years. Pointing to a line of grey bins and a pile of carpets and flattened cardboard boxes, he said: "Now, it's OK, but in the evening it piles up and in the morning also." After the sun went down, he said, residents and local shopkeepers dumped their rubbish near the bins. @Email:[e-mail]

* Additional reporting by Jen Gerson