EEG Celebrates the Champions of the Recycle-Reforest-Repeat Campaign

This year, the theme of World Day to Combat Desertification was “Land has true value – invest in it”, which witnessed rallying across the world on the 17^th of June. It advocates the importance of sustainable land management practices and highlights on the importance of preserving healthy and sustainable land. As an accredited organisation, Emirates Environmental Group has joined hands with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in its efforts to restore degraded soils. The organisation rolled out its popular project “Recycle. Reforest. Repeat” from the 18^th of June until the 18^th of July, with the goal of engaging its student, academic and corporate members and encouraging them to take action towards reversing land degradation. It strategically targeted paper collections as the recycling of paper allows for sustainability through minimising carbon dioxide emissions and the number of trees that are being cut down and hence reducing the pressure on natural resources and combatting desertification.

The objective of the “Recycle. Reforest. Repeat” project was to create awareness at the grass root level on the need to preserve the environment by engaging the community in a constructive activity with a target to accomplish. The target of paper collections was 750kgs of paper for corporate and academic members and 350kgs of paper for student members. The project witnessed an 85% increase in participation since last year with 216 entities, who effectively backed the global contributions to sustainable development goals by their local actions. The participants collectively deposited over 132,709 kg of paper during the one-month period leading to a staggering 173% increase in collections compared to 2017. The recycling of the collected paper resulted in the mitigation of 510 MT of carbon dioxide and saved 2,959 million BTU of energy, 416 m³ of landfill space and 2,243 trees from being felled. Moreover the project acted as an effective means to educate people on the need for suitable waste management practices - specifically to rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle. It highlighted the need for more such action platforms to engage the different members of the society to contribute to energy and land conservation and to the reduction of pollution.

EEG awarded the champions of the project on the 15^th of September during a meaningful closing ceremony in the venue kindly provided by the Grand Millennium Hotel, Dubai. EEG’s Chairperson, Mrs. Habiba Al Mar’ashi addressed the champions of this programme for their diligence and efforts and awarded them with certificates of participation and with a sapling of an indigenous tree to be planted in their name, under EEG’s “For Our Emirates We Plant Initiative” in the month of December. A special mention was given to the 75 student members, 22 corporate organizations, 20 academic institutions and the category champions that met their target and stood out for their prompt action and exemplary sustainable practices.

EEG calls upon the society at large to make such recycling practices a regular and consistent feature all year round, advocating the importance of inclusive cooperation to restore and rehabilitate degraded land and contribute towards achieving the overall Sustainable Development Goals.