The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been ranked as hosting the cleanest environment among the Gulf cooperative council countries (GCC) and the second best in the Middle East region according to World Environmental Performance Index (EPI) in a recent press release.

The surprise of this ranking is that the UAE has jumped from a 152^nd place in 2008, which was considered among the poorest scoring eco-friendly country in the world, to number 77 in 2012.

The other GCC rankings include Saudi Arabia (82^nd), Qatar (100^th), Oman (110^th) and Kuwait (126^th), while Bahrain is not including in the ranking. The EPI’s indicators and policies are evaluated in many categories such as Environmental Diseases, Water, Air Pollution, Biodiversity and Habitat, Forestry, Fisheries, Agriculture, Climate Changes.

Meanwhile, the UAE is ranked 27^th in The Pilot Trend Environmental Performance Index, a new tool launched this year to measure the eco-friendly inclinations in different countries.

The world’s top ranker in the index is Switzerland, while Iraq has the lowest ranking among the 132 included countries this year. The UAE is ranked one step after Egypt, which is the highest ranked among the Middle Eastern and Arab countries. This index is issued every year by Yale and Colombia University based on 22 environmental indicators and policies.

The local governments of each Emirate have started green polices in their governmental sectors and urge the private sector to take steps into eco-friendly policies as well to protect and develop the limited natural resource of the warm and humid weathered countries. These efforts focus mainly on reducing the energy and water consumption, as well as initiating sustainable waste management.

At the end of 2011, Abu Dhabi’s municipality introduced fines against spitting, disposing gums and throwing cigarettes in the streets as in an effort to save the clean environment in the city. These fines would also reduce the unaccepted behavior of certain communities in the city. These fines vary from 100 dirhams to 500 dirhams (27.22 to 136 USD).

In addition, the Urban Planning Council of Abu Dhabi urges all future villa owners to use an online tool to ensure that they plan their villas according to the green building code. This code aims to reduce the energy and water bills by 40% by urging villa owners to use alternative energy types and to increase green landscaping around their villas.

According to officials in The UAE’s Ministry of Environment and Water, the UAE plans to be a plastic bag free country by the end of 2013, to help reduce plastic consumption in the country. In collaboration with the ministry of Economy, both ministries urge all supermarkets and shops to give their customers biodegradable bags rather than plastic bags in order to reach this goal on the specified deadline.

The alternatives to plastic bags are made from recycled paper, jute or polycaprolactone which is easily biodegradable. Plastic bags on the other hand are known to be highly non-easily biodegradable, and can last for more than 100 years.

Image Courtesy of  slava296 / Shutterstock.com

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Waste Management of Arizona and Arizona State University (ASU) has announced their collaborative program “Roadmap to Zero Solid Waste” that aims to eliminate 90 percent or more of ASU’s solid waste by 2015.

The program is being developed in three phases including waste assessment, roadmap development and program implementation. It includes all four ASU campuses – Tempe, West, Polytechnic and Downtown Phoenix.

Waste Management already is working with an ASU team to assess the university’s complete waste-collection processes, waste generation and material conveyance. Waste Management dedicated an on-site project manager and two student interns to provide continual guidance and direction throughout the roadmap development process, including the execution of the waste-elimination plan.

“Harnessing the expertise of the Waste Management team will enable us to properly align our resources within ASU sustainability operations to achieve our zero solid-waste strategies,” said Ray Jensen, ASU associate vice president University Business Services and university sustainability operations officer. “We are fortunate to work with Waste Management on a ‘Roadmap to Zero Solid Waste’ to keep us on track to our 2015 zero solid-waste goal.”

The objectives outlined in ASU’s current 2015 zero-waste strategy include averting 30 percent of campus solid waste from the landfill and diverting 60 percent. The ASU community can help meet aversion goals in several ways by reducing consumption.

Landfill-waste diversion includes recycling, repurposing, reusing and composting practices. Waste-related operations at each of the four ASU campuses including generation trends, collection flow, container and compactor placement, front and back of house solutions and the final waste elimination processes are key areas for solid waste diversion measures.

“Waste Management’s goal is to extract the maximum value from the waste stream, and we are a company that is truly committed to turning waste into a resource,” said Pat DeRueda, Waste Management of Arizona-New Mexico area vice president. “We are proud to work with ASU, a leader in sustainability, to help them achieve their Zero Waste initiatives.”

Waste Management has provided collection, processing, recycling and transport services of waste materials to Arizona State University since 2007.

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Waste Management today announced that it will launch its Zero Waste Challenge — an initiative aimed at educating vendors and patrons about proper disposal of waste, so that eventually zero waste is sent to the landfill — at the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

This year, Waste Management’s goal is to divert 90 percent of tournament waste away from landfills and into recycling and composting facilities. In addition, the company hopes to recover 70 percent of the total waste, either as recyclable paper, cardboard, plastics, aluminum or as compost material.

As part of the Zero Waste campaign, Waste Management in conjunction with the Thunderbirds will work with all tournament vendors to ensure that everyone is using recyclable and compostable materials. And for the first time ever, there will be no trash receptacles along the course.

Instead, Waste Management will offer two alternatives to waste disposal — Recycling Bins and Compost Bins – which will collect and keep separate recoverable recycling waste and recoverable compostable food waste, diverting nearly all tournament materials from the landfill.

“The Zero Waste Challenge is an incredible opportunity for Waste Management to energize and educate this broad audience about our efforts to triple the amount of recyclable materials nationwide by the year 2020,” said Waste Management senior vice president Duane Woods.

He adds, “As a company committed to extracting the most value possible from all of the materials we manage, we continue to look for ways to make WMPO the greenest tournament on the PGA Tour.” Underscoring the company’s commitment to the Zero Waste campaign, Waste Management will showcase many green initiatives along the course:

• Recycling Stations in high-traffic areas, staffed with “Recycling Ambassadors” to answer any questions about using the recycling and composting bins.

• Waste Management will work closely with WMPO vendors to monitor their use of water throughout the week in order to increase overall conservation.

• Use of grey water, or wastewater generated from the concessionaire’s kitchens will be recycled for use in portable toilets. Last year this effort conserved 1,476 gallons of fresh water.

• Recycle bank Kiosks, or reverse vending machines, offering various incentives or retailer discount coupons to patrons who use them.

• Sixty WM solar-powered compactors along the course to allow patrons to dispose of their food waste more efficiently (these machines hold five times the amount of waste as a traditional non-compacting bin, which reduces the trips needed to service them).

• Four compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks to transport the waste and recycled materials that are collected during the tournament. The fuel in these trucks burns cleaner than a standard diesel truck and therefore will reduce fleet emissions associated with transportation.

• Waste Management’s hospitality tent will be powered by electricity generated from a portable solar power unit provided by First Solar.

Recycling Ambassadors will play an important role in educating tournament attendees, monitoring recycling and food waste receptacles and increasing awareness of the waste diversion goals for the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Recycling Ambassadors will serve as a guide to assist fans with proper disposal of materials and will actively engage with fans and answer any questions they may have.

For additional information about volunteering as a Recycling Ambassador, visit www.wmphoenixopen.com/volunteer.

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