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Lush lawns and tree lined avenues; radiant parks, gardens and roundabouts. Verdant urban areas in the Emirates are a surprise to those who expect to find here, mere sand and gravel. To create and maintain perennial greenery in a desert is indeed challenging. After all, arid climes experience a paucity of two basic requirements – soil nutrients and water. However, the massive quantity of waste that we generate is, to a large extent, being recycled to compensate for this deficiency.
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The organic fraction of city waste (kitchen scraps), sludge (sourced from the sewage treatment plant) and green waste (grass cuts, tree trimmings and leaf litter) are being composted and converted into rich natural fertiliser and soil conditioner; while waste water is being treated for use in irrigation.
Earthsense visits the compost plant in Sharjah, which boasts in excess of five million square metres of greenery including 57 parks, with more being added each year. All the fertiliser needed to sustain this greenery is met by Sharjah Municipality’s compost plant, in operation since the 1978, making it one of the oldest plants along with those at Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
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“If we didn’t recycle all this material, it would all go to the dump,” says Sayed Ali Shah, head of the compost plant, as we explore the large premises, watching green waste being shredded before it is laid out in the fermentation area for composting. Alongside, sludge (this is full of nutrients) from the neighbouring sewage treatment plant is being mechanically worked into the green waste. From start to finish, it will take 45 – 50 days for the microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi to do their job of converting raw green waste into humus (partially decomposed organic matter) for use as natural fertiliser.
Whereas city municipal solid waste has been composted since the plant was set up, vegetation cuttings have been added since last year when they accounted for a quarter of the total compost produced. “This year we expect the proportion of green waste and city waste compost to be 50:50,” declares Shah.
We move on to the city waste section of the plant, where municipal solid waste is brought in each day, mostly from residential areas. The dank odor is all pervasive, but we don’t really mind. This is after all a processing unit for the garbage we have produced and discarded without a care about its ultimate destination, as long as it isn’t in our back yards.
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Sharjah produces 1000 tonnes of city waste a day. About 20 per cent of this makes its way for composting, equal to the plant’s capacity of 200 tonnes. And after removal of the inorganic matter from this - metal, plastic, glass, cloth and the rest – about 80 tonnes of organic waste on a daily basis is recycled to produce an average of 40 tonnes of compost. In addition, 100 tonnes of green waste collected from the emirate’s gardens also comes here. In summary, each day, some 36 per cent of the organic segment of Sharjah’s waste is transformed into rich nutrition for its parks and gardens. Last year’s total production touched 16,000 tonnes.
Of course, painstaking effort goes into eliminating inorganic components from the city waste to make it ready for composting. Most of these materials constitute recyclables and wouldn’t have been present, had these been segregated at source (sorted at the household level) for recycling. “Segregation is the key. The more refined a material is, the better the compost,” remarks Shah. The city waste, therefore, goes through an elaborate process of manual and mechanical removal of unwanted components before undergoing fermentation.
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The ecological benefits of composting are great. Diverting waste from the dump while greening and beautifying the urban environment is a fundamental gain. Additionally, each tonne of waste so diverted saves 2 – 2.5 cubic metres of land space in a dump on an annual basis. This helps save money spent on landfill management and land restoration. Besides, if compost were not locally produced, it would have to be imported at some expense.
There are other advantages too. Compost binds soil, curbs soil erosion and, at the same time, enriches it over time, improving its quality from sandy to loamy; from a harsh to a sweeter medium that is more supportive of vegetative growth.
Numerous greenery projects are on the cards in Sharjah, to meet the organic fertiliser demand for which, plans are afoot to construct a new compost plant – larger, technologically superior, distant from settled areas and enclosed in a green belt. Once realised, these plans will help meet the needs of private users as well, besides fulfilling the requirements of Sharjah’s expanding green acres.
Engineer AHMAD MOHAMMAD FIKRI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SHARJAH MUNICIPALITY tells Earthsense:
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Production of organic manure has been tremendously enhanced in recent years at our composting facility. From an average level of 8 – 9,000 tonnes a year, the production is anticipated to cross 20, 000 tonnes this year. Being an essential component of our new Efficient Waste Management Strategy, basic groundwork is already underway on a proposed expansion and relocation plan of the existing composting facility. Source segregation, being an integral part of the same plan, will further boost compostable material recovery out of the general waste stream to achieve a targeted production of 60,000 tonnes a year.
Once the whole project is implemented by the beginning of 2004, we will not only be able to fulfill our own organic fertiliser needs for existing and future greenery projects, but will also be able to offer a quality product to private consumers within a reasonable price range.
The objectives of the suggested plan are to make use of garbage in a positive way by transforming it into a resource rather than dumping it blindly into a landfill.
SREEDEVI PILLAI, Teacher, Our Own English High School, Fujairah wrote to Earthsense:
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If we can’t do much about recycling, we must cut down the use of certain things like not buying small mineral water bottles but only the returnable 5 gallon ones; using handkerchiefs instead of tissues; using tiffin boxes instead of aluminum foil packets. These are just a few ideas.
I find it extremely difficult to get people to comprehend the dangers from large quantities of waste generation. For example, I returned the plastic bags my launderer used to bring clothes in and asked him to reuse them. He readily agreed and left. Moments later I saw him throw all the bags in a garbage bin. Next, when I asked the girl at the Hypermarket to put vegetables of the same price in a single plastic packet, she politely refused, saying that she wasn’t supposed to do so. The result: 5-6 additional plasic bags in my trolley. I try to reuse all the plastic bags since I don’t feel like throwing them. I have a huge pile of blue bags in my house. I tried to return them to the supermarket downstairs; but the boy there laughed and asked me whether he should take them to his home country! He also told me to THROW them. As simple as that! Well, I’m not going to do that. I have to find an alternative.
I am happy and proud to say that I don’t use any air fresheners, insect killers or other products of the kind. I’m happy to play my part in saving the environment. I know it is nothing compared to the amount of pollution. Still, I feel good doing something for Mother Earth just out of gratitude to her.
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WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO?
From Elisa Bigo, Dubai Resident & Homemaker
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- select purchases based on the quality that I am looking for and, within that, I opt for that with the least packaging and wrapping:
- buy loose items across the counter (such as cheese, spices , olives) instead of prepackaged (as on Styrofoam trays or packets), so that I may put these in my own reusable containers at home;
- reuse any plastic containers that I may have no choice but to pick up;
- try to squeeze in as many items as I can in one carrier bag;
- take my own canvas bag when I have little shopping to do;
- always look out for ‘eco friendly’ products like the toothbrushes that come with a number of changeable brushes and recycled materials such as paper ( I never throw away paper till the very end, when it can’t be used any more!)
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