Amal Al-Sibai Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — In recent years, residents of Jeddah have grimly witnessed the coastal city's transformation from the shimmering Bride of the Red Sea into a congested, polluted, and littered city with wastelands mounting in the midst of residential neighborhoods. Garbage dumps and landfills have accumulated odd objects of all sorts in one big heap of unwanted electronics, old computers, furniture, books, newspapers, glass bottles, batteries, and other such items. Over the years, accusations have been fired back and forth from one sector of the society to another over who is responsible for the pollution. Sanitation workers reported that the locals failed to properly dispose of their waste in the designated trash bins — which can be evidenced in the arduous task strolling down the Corniche has become. It requires much skill to avoid stepping on broken pieces of glass or leftover food, which vacationers mindlessly litter by the seashore. On the other hand, residents blame the municipality for the city's environmental degradation. Concerned residents have complained for years over the lack of viable and easily accessible options for recycling. However, at last, the municipality has responded to environmentalists' and residents' demands, with their newest campaign, which exclaims, “A cleaner environment means a healthy environment.” Starting from this week, the municipality has begun to provide residents with brightly colored trash bins, each designated for a certain material. For example, the blue bins are for paper and cardboard, red for tin, aluminum, and glass, and green for plastic. For now, these bins have been dispersed throughout the Wurood District in Jeddah. Abdul Aziz Al-Nahari, spokesman of the Jeddah Mayoralty, said to the press, “Providing colored bins for recyclable materials is part of the municipality's broader plans to keep the city cleaner and to protect the environment. The municipality aims to raise awareness among society that items such as plastic, aluminum cans, paper, and glass can all be recycled in order to preserve a healthier environment for our future generations. Recycling is an indicator of a developed, knowledgeable, and responsible society.” Not only will this solution solve the dilemma of where to discard recyclables, but it will also help those who search for recyclables in the trash bins. In the past, those searching have exposed waste and discarded food, which due to the country's heat had elicited an unbearable stench in some neighborhoods. Rotting food further attracted the proliferation of insects and rodents, which may have instigated the spread of disease and other health problems in the community. Such spillage and exposure of garbage further adversely affected the aesthetics of the city. Officials from the mayoralty claim that routine inspections will be made around the newly installed bins to prevent people from going through them. Violation fees will be imposed on those caught rummaging through garbage bins, and any illegal resident caught doing so will be deported. Sanitation workers contracted with the municipality will be responsible for delivering the recyclables to recycling plants. A source from the mayoralty informed the press that recycling has become a major priority of the city's leaders. Generous funding is being provided to help develop recycling plants. Though the current productivity rate of the major recycling plants is the treatment of around 1,800 tons of recyclables each day, improvements underway aim to treat approximately 2,500 tons of recyclables each day. Furthermore, a new addition to Jeddah's recycling plants is the recycling and reusing of plants and discarded wood in order to manufacture organic agricultural fertilizers from natural products. These natural fertilizers will be free of harmful chemicals and toxins present in chemical fertilizers, which contaminate the soil and water in farms and agricultural fields. Like the colored bins for recyclables and other waste that have been placed in the Wurood district, the municipality plans to install special bins for recyclables in all the areas and districts of Jeddah.
