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In line with EEG’s core objectives, and to tackle the

grave environmental issues of desertification and encour-

age community participation, EEG started various waste

management initiatives which were cleverly combined

with initiatives to plant indigenous trees across UAE and

create sustainable green spaces. The idea of the projects is to

provide a platform for the community to recycle their waste

and reward their efforts by planting a tree under the entity’s

(company, academic institution or family) name in one of

the Emirates, thus giving back to the environment.

Due to seamless methodology of outreach, collection

and disposal, EEG hosts eight recycling campaigns which

have been running for the last two decades. These include

aluminium cans, glass, paper, plastic, toners and cartridges,

batteries, mobiles, e-waste and beverage carton containers.

EEG’s waste management programme has been success-

ful due to the combined support of the community, the

Government and various recycling factories across UAE.

With its aim to achieve zero recyclable waste going to

landfills, EEG reaches out to the community — public and

private sectors, educational institutions and families —

to encourage them and instil the culture of recycling in

their daily lives. It is no easy task to educate, motivate and

engage people in the act of recycling as a continuous and

long-term practice, but since inception in 1991, EEG has

made considerable progress towards that end.

EEG realizes that planting trees is key to protecting

and preserving the fragile ecological balance. Under the

aegis of UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign, EEG has planted

over 2,093,177 trees across the Emirates with the active

participation of public and private organizations, academic

institutions and families. There follow some examples of

EEG’s prime waste management activities which were

introduced with tree planting initiatives in mind.

For Our Emirates —We Plant is a unique, first-of-its-kind

project that combines EEG’s diverse waste management

programmes with its simple, practical yet innovative tree

planting initiatives. Under this banner, EEG planted 685

indigenous trees across UAE in 2014 with participation

from public and private organizations, academic institu-

tions and families. These trees on maturity (5-7 years) will

save 2.57 metric tons of CO

There are four innovative channels through which partici-

pants can plant trees in their names, the first three of which

form part of EEG’s waste management activities:

• Your Can for a Tree (YCFT) initiative (April-June)

• Neighbourhood Recycling Project (NRP)

(June-September)

• One Root One Communi-Tree (OROC) initiative

(July-November)

• Together We Plant (January-May and September-December).

The YCFT initiative has been hosted during April to June each

year since 2012. Public and private organizations, academic

institutions and families across UAE are encouraged to collect

aluminium cans to win an opportunity to plant an indigenous

tree under their names during EEG’s Tree Planting Ceremony

held in December each year. The initiative creates awareness

among the adult population while emphasizing the impor-

tance of recycling aluminium cans. It also helps combat

desertification and degradation of land by planting more trees

and deviating waste from landfills.

Organizations, institutions and families collect aluminium cans to win an opportunity to plant an indigenous tree under their names

Images: EEG

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