Dubai Municipality’s Waste Management Department recently conducted an awareness exhibition on its Smart Sustainability Oasis project at Dubai Customs.

The two-day exhibition was aimed at creating awareness among the employees and customers of Dubai Customs on establishing a culture of segregating domestic waste, reflecting its importance on realising the environmental strategic goals thereby reducing depletion of resources and expenses.

Abdul Majeed Sifai, Director of the Waste Management Department and Head of the Sustainable Waste Management Awareness Group in the Municipality, said that the exhibition was part of the annual awareness plan, which is being implemented for all categories of customers.

"Through this exhibition, we focus on the government employees and their customers in order to spread a waste segregation culture as it is the basic focus of the environment culture. The two-day event at Dubai Customs was attended by 350 employees, who were educated on the different types of waste received at the Smart Sustainability Oasis at its locations spread across the emirate of Dubai.

"The participants were invited to bring three types of recyclable waste; paper, plastic and electronic waste. The Customs employees were able to bring 860kg of recyclable waste. We also honoured two employees, Mohammed Farooq Abubaker and Mustafa Kamil, with prizes from Canon for winning the competition for gathering the maximum amount of recyclable waste.

"In addition to that, we also conducted an awareness workshop for the students of the Children’s Nursery at Dubai Customs in which the children were introduced to different materials that can be disposed of at the Smart Sustainability Oasis centres. Children also participated in the act of placing the materials at the right places," Sifai said.

He further added that Smart Sustainability Oasis, which is a pioneering project that allows the public to dispose of 18 types of recyclable materials, also takes care of the people of determination.

"This year, we will install 13 more centres as part of the first phase of the project. These smart sustainable centres are designed according to high-quality standards and best international specifications. It depends on renewable energy sources for generating clean power by using solar panels," he said.

Khaleel Saqar Bin Ghareeb, Director of the Corporate Communications Department at Dubai Customs, said he is happy to see that the exhibition is realising its awareness goals in order to make Dubai the smartest city with clean, healthy and sustainable materials in line with the National Agenda of the Emirate’s Vision 2021 that endeavours to achieve a sustainable environment.