Dubai: In line with its ambitions to promote sustainability, Dubai Airports has revealed a new waste management initiative which will considerably contribute towards the Authority’s commitment to keep 60 percent of all waste from Dubai International (DXB) from entering landfills by the middle of 2023.
Under the new initiative, Dubai Airports has introduced an innovative food waste treatment plan which will capture and compost 2,000+ tons of food waste every year from food and beverage outlets, lounges and hotels across DXB terminals and concourses.
The move plays a significant part towards sustainability as leaving food waste to decompose in a landfill result in the emission of methane gas which is 72 times more harmful to the environment than CO2.
THE INITIATIVE
Dubai Airports collaborated with its waste management partner BEEAH Group, the Sharjah-based sustainability pioneer to devise the innovative new food waste plan.
The new plan uses a special high-tech biodigester compost system installed in multiple locations across DXB that dramatically increases the speed at which food waste breaks down and becomes reusable compost and clean wastewater.
The DXB waste diversion strategy is designed to sustain a resilient waste management system that identifies the least economic, environmental, and social impact methods to capture, treat, reuse, or recycle all forms of waste.
To date, the initiative has already achieved 40+ percent reduction in waste, including a special initiative that captures 100 percent of all cooking oil used in airport F&B outlets and converts it to biodiesel fuel.
BEEAH Group is committed to being Dubai Airports’ partner to create a range of innovative new programs to capture and find a useful purpose for all forms of waste in the most practical and impactful ways possible. Deploying Power Knot technology across all DXB terminals and concourses is a great example of that innovation and will put us on the path to achieve our goal of eliminating food waste and achieving our waste diversion targets.
Mr. Rafael Sanjurjo Lopez, CEO Bee’ah Tandeef remarked.
“Capturing and diverting all forms of waste from landfills is a strategically important component of our waste management program. While airport operations contribute a very small percentage of the overall waste generated at DXB, we are working in close partnership with airlines, F&B facilities, and all other partners across the airport to make a unified commitment to achieving and surpassing our 60 percent waste reduction objective,” Mr. Jamal Zaal, Vice President of Safety and Sustainability at Dubai Airports observed about the waste management plan.