Recycle in UAE with Homecycle!

Since few years I was struggling to recycle waste from my household on regular basis. The things which we don't want and are in good condition can be given to charities or sold in flea markets. But the recyclable items in our waste, which people generally throw in garbage and increase amount of landfill; can actually be recycled and used as raw material for production of useful items.

Recyclables @my home

We all know paper, glass, aluminum, plastics, clothes are few such recyclables in our everyday waste. We tried taking our recyclables to different places where recycle bins are provided for these items. But driving to some place far just added hassle and to be frank demotivated us from recycling. There are few companies in UAE, who offer services to pick up recyclable items from your home in Dubai at small cost. But being from a country like India, where we actually get money out of recycling things, I could not support this idea. In developed countries people do this to avoid fines from municipalities for not recycling and expats from these countries use these paid services out of practice.

There are also few companies or non profit organizations in UAE, who collect recyclables and claim these items are recycled. But when I contacted their staff few years back to know how they recycle the items, out of interest. They answered me it is none of my business! But after some research I found out that they actually dump our recyclables in landfill. These kind of findings made me start taking doubts on organizations here. Of course there are companies in UAE who actually use recycled material for production like Union paper mill (paper), Dubal (aluminum), etc. They also provide picking up service for recyclable waste, but for large quantities, for offices and industries etc, not for households.

But recently I have found amazing solution for household recycling. An organization based in UAE, Keep It Clean has started a notable service called Homecycle. Through this service they pick up recyclable materials from individual household. They also provide us points against our recyclables, which can further be redeemed for shopping or donation to charity. This service is free to use, we just need to open an free account on their website. And the best part is all these recyclable materials they pick up from our household are actually getting recycled. Mr. John , who is behind Keep it clean explained to me about almost how every item is recycled. Roughly after picking up recyclables from our place they segregate it in their yard. After segregation they send items to either manufacturing companies to use it as raw material during production in UAE and India or they send items to recycling facility in Sajja to process the items to use them for reproduction.

Here are brief details of Homecycle service:

Recyclable items includes (there is minimum number required for picking up)- Plastic bags, pens, glass containers , aerosols, aluminum cans, mobile phones,  household batteries, cloth hangers, carton drink packaging, shower gel bottles, ink cartridges etc.

Points redeemable at- Vouchers: ecowash, fair deal, ekotribe, green car rental, organic foods and café, ripe, the body shop, MAC etc
or Donations to charities: EWS WWF, Plant a Ghaf, Emirates diving associations etc

This is that authentic, convinent and reliable recycling service, which UAE residents were very much in need of. Last month I collected recyclable items throughout the month mainly glass containers (30 nos) and aluminum cans (30 nos). I requested pickup through my account on their website. Their person came next day for pick up. I received 5 points; 2 for glass and 3 for cans. After reaching certain points (around 200) I would be able to redeem. I want to donate my points to EWS WWF, as I did volunteering work with them in past and it is definitely my favorite charity.

I am sure my readers are equally happy to know about this easy to use recycling service.
Keep Recycling!