Environmental solutions company Dulsco Environment, is encouraging students around the UAE to start the new academic year on a sustainable note.
The company aims to make sustainability part of daily life at schools and at home, through recycling and waste management.
Dulsco Environment has come up with 10 methods to raise awareness and increase sustainability:
- Posters can be placed in staff rooms, classrooms, canteens and corridors on ways to increase sustainability, as well as host awareness campaigns to highlight the importance of recycling.
- Colour-coded recycling bins can be placed around schools, making sure they are correctly labelled, to ensure waste is segregated properly for recycling.
- Students and teachers should replace single-use plastic products with sustainable and reusable alternatives.
- By setting targets to manage waste, students, teachers and parents can get involved and have fun while tracking the progress made and celebrating the milestones.
- Campaigns can be held to encourage recycling, where students collect paper, cans and plastic, and these items can also be used to turn waste into art.
- Lights should be turned off at schools and at home, when nobody is in the area.
- School canteens can avoid food waste by serving customisable portions, and can use food composters to turn leftovers into compost.
- Lunches for students should be packed in reusable materials like beeswax paper.
- Students can use tablets and laptops for schoolwork, however, if not possible, recycled notebooks can be used. Additionally, unused pages from notebooks can be turned into notepads, to avoid wasting paper.
- To save electricity, students can complete their homework and projects when there is natural daylight to cut energy consumption bills, or use LED bulbs.
- Opt for walking to school or carpooling to reduce vehicle emissions.
Joelle Saab, Recycling and Treatment Director at Dulsco Environment said, "Sustainability and the environment should be high up on the educational agenda. While there have been great strides in schools' green initiatives over the last few years, there is still a long way to go."
Dulsco Environment has hosted sessions on waste management for over 3,500 students and teachers, and has also launched a recycling bus to promote sustainability.
Booking for an awareness session and the recycling bus can be made by calling 800-92783.
Joelle Saab
Recycling and Treatment Director at Dulsco Environment