(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The 20 hotels and hotel apartments operating in Ras Al Khaimah produce over 50 tonnes of wastes every week, a top official has revealed.
Sonia Nasser, director-general of the wastes authority in Ras Al Khaimah, said the over 50 tonnes of wastes being collected from RAK hotels include 30 tonnes of foodstuff and 20 tonnes of plastic and glass. Only two of the hotels are complying with the standards of recycling set in the emirate, Nasser added. In a bid to fix things, the authority has initiated a new scheme to recycle hotel waste in collaboration with the hotels and hotel apartments in the emirate, she added. "One of the two environment-friendly hotels has installed a special device that extracts water from decomposed food waste earlier separated from other waste items, and reuse the water in the irrigation process." The other eco-friendly hotel has made arrangements to separate food waste, and plastic and glass. "This sorting process has made it easier to better recycle all wastes from the hotel unlike the other 18 hotels." Nasser said all managers of the hotels and hotel apartments operating in the emirate have shown willingness to observe the new environment and recycling standards in a recent meeting. "Over 100 containers to discard different types of waste have been distributed to all the hotels in the emirate to better facilitate waste-sorting and to efficiently streamline the recycling process." The RAK waste authority is all set to increase waste recycling from four per cent to 13 per cent this year, she elaborated. "We are also committed to increase the recycling percentage to 75 per cent by the year 2021." The authority is also planning to implement sustainability in waste recycling and use garbage in generating power, Nasser stated. "This is part of the pioneering project of methane gas production that will be launched by the end of this year." Ahmed Shaaban Master's degree in Mass Media with 19 year experience in media and translation