The earth to humans is like a loving mother to her child. It will continue to give without question, no matter how tired or sick the planet is and no matter how unreasonable our demands are, until we have damaged too much of it so that there is not much left to give, just like old age eventually weakens a mother's body and her ability to give. One effective way that has already been introduced by Jeddah Municipality to protect our environment, avoid exhausting the natural resources, and extend the life of our planet, is to recycle every bit of waste that we generate in our homes each day. It is the only way to rescue our city, save the time, energy, and resources needed to get rid of waste using older methods, reduce pollution, and preserve the health and beauty of the Bride of the Red Sea. According to an official report by Jeddah Municipality that was shared with Saudi Gazette, on average, Jeddah residents generate 5,000 tons of waste per month, but during Ramadan and Haj the number reaches as high as 7,500 tons. Jeddah alone generates two million tons of waste each year, which translates to about 1.8 kg of waste per day per person in Jeddah. “Our vision is of a cleaner, greener, more developed, and attractive Jeddah. Not only is recycling good for the environment, but it will also boost the city's economy and create new job opportunities,” said Dr. Hani Abu Ras, Mayor of Jeddah, who approved the municipality's support and funding of the recent recycling project that has already hit two of Jeddah's districts Al-Masarrah and Al-Fayhaa. “The tremendous amount of waste that is simply being disposed of is actually the lost gold; it is a treasure. If the waste was used properly, it could save the country billions of dollars. Almost everything can be recycled. Rather than draining the planet of its already depleted raw materials to manufacture new products, less chemicals, raw materials, time, and electricity will be consumed when new products are made from old, recycled ones,” said Eng. Ayman Al-Zahrani, the municipality's Sanitation Manager for Northern Jeddah. “The municipality's goal is to encourage society to follow these steps: reduce waste, reuse, and recycle. The last and most undesirable option is for the waste to end up in landfills,” added Al-Zahrani. Imagine that recycling old car tires, which are piled up in barren lands creating an ugly scene, produces the rubber material that is used as soft and safe flooring for children's playgrounds in schools, parks, and shopping centers. Abandoned and thrown out cars can be stripped down and the metal parts melted and used to produce steel and automobile spare parts. Agricultural waste can be recycled to manufacture fertilizers and even organic waste can be recycled to produce methane gas and to generate electricity. Construction waste can be recycled into sand and pebbles used for landscaping. It costs more energy and time to manufacture a brand new aluminum soda can from raw materials than it does to recycle 20 used aluminum cans. Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees. The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to keep a light bulb running for four hours. Recycling plastic reduces the amount of energy used to burn it in an incinerator by half. Plastic garbage thrown into the ocean worldwide kills as many as one million sea creatures every year. It is going to take action and not just eloquent words and alarming numbers to clean up our city. “Jeddah municipality has partnered with the Saudi Environmental Society headed by Prince Turki Bin Nasser, President of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment, to take clear-cut steps and to promote in our society the concept of recycling from the source, which is your home, apartment building, school, office, or university,” said Dr. Majda Aburas, Member of the Board of Directors and Vice Deputy Manager of SENS. The level of education and environmental awareness has significantly risen in Saudi society and all residents are dissatisfied and frustrated with the current situation of stinking neighborhood garbage cans, dirty street cats rummaging through garbage, homeless women digging up garbage, and the surrounding insects that spread diseases. The society is ready for a change and they will welcome the new project which is the very first governmental initiative for recycling in the Kingdom. Aburas, a strong supporter and vital pillar of this project told the Saudi Gazette: “Before the new recycling bins were introduced in Al-Masarrah and Al-Fayhaa districts, SENS held awareness lectures and workshops that targeted the women in these communities. Over 400 women attended and participated and they learned how to separate waste in the home and drop off recyclables at the correctly designated bins. Their response and participation has been amazing. In fact, without their active involvement and cooperation, the project would not have been so successful over the last four months. We have a number of awareness events planned for the near future.” “Our aim is to make recycling easy and accessible to the average family. The municipality is responsible for distributing different colored garbage bags to the households each month in these two districts. We use the language of color because it is universal and it can be understood by all. Red is for glass and metal, green is for paper and cardboard, blue is for plastic, and black is for other discarded waste that cannot be recycled. The bins have a flap on top for dropping off and the lids are locked and can only be opened by the municipality garbage collector who has a master key, and the colored garbage bins are securely fixed to the ground. This safety mechanism protects the neighborhoods from problems of garbage scavengers, insects, and stray cats. The separated recyclables are transferred directly to the city's recycling plants. Even the collecting trucks for recyclables are new, modern, high-tech, and pleasant to the eye,” explained Eng. Al-Zahrani. Al-Zahrani said when the recyclables are not separated originally from the source, this creates a great physical burden and financial cost on the municipality's waste management system. When waste arrives as one huge heap at the disposal site, the recyclables are mixed up with the rest of the waste. He added that it takes time and electricity to extract the recyclable items, sort and separate them, clean them out, and treat them so that they are safe to be reused and recycled. By the time recyclables reach the disposal site, a large proportion is already unacceptable and damaged beyond salvation, so they end up in the landfills to be compressed and buried. The process of garbage collecting, disposing in landfills, compressing, and finally burying or incinerating is far more expensive and costly for the government than a reliable system of recycling from the source. “The trial stage introduced in Al-Masarrah and Al-Fayhaa districts has met with much success and has received widespread positive feedback from the community and has also attracted prospective investors in this lucrative industry. Recycling can be a joint venture between the government and private sectors. I personally have received countless calls from individual people, school principals, and university administrators, requesting the municipality to start recycling projects in their institutes,” said Al-Zahrani. In a way, recycling from the source empowers the average person; the mother, father, school teacher, and child, because it is they who will separate waste in a clean and efficient way to preserve the recyclable items that will be reused for manufacturing new products.
