Recycling in Dubai

I'm not really sure what the deal is here in Dubai with recycling in Dubai. We have two wheelie bins outside the front gate a black one for general waste and a green one for recycling. 

The refuse collection comes every night around 9pm to empty the bin and re line it with a black bag. However they only empty the bin if it's full.

The neighbours regularly add rubbish to our bins if theirs are full and it seems to be an acceptable thing to do.

It's also perfectly normal to leave any unwanted larger items outside side your gate, such as furniture and other larger items.

These are often taken by the maids and gardeners and when we left a door outside the hinges and handles were removed for scrap by one collector and then the door taken later that day by someone else.

The gardener puts the grass and plant cuttings in either bin and our attempts at recycling tins, cans, paper and cardboard seem to be a pointless exercise as when the wheelie bins are collected they get thrown into the same lorry. People do however go through the recycling bins and recover cans and plastic bottles, I assume to sell on somewhere.

We have a collection of newspapers and leaflets thrown over the gate daily. the local free newspaper 7 days is very informative and I recycle them by making pots for sewing seeds in. We no longer get the newspapers and have since moved house, but the number of leaflets hasn't decreased.

 We also use 2 large bottles of water every week for drinking and cooking in, the tap water is brown and warm. I am still trying to find an alternative use for them, let me know if you have any ideas.
They're no good for growing plants in as the soil in plastic containers reaches 50c and the plants don't survive. (we've tried it)

 We could cut down a bit more with our recycling and although this looks like a lot of cold drinks in the fridge, that photo was taken after a food shop and will last 4-6 weeks when we don't have visitors and we do drink squash not just drinks from cans.

We take our own bags to the supermarkets but unless you pay attention they still pack into the free plastic bags anyway, leaving me to empty them and leave them behind.

There are clothing banks, often outside the mosques and some shopping malls and centres have recycling bins for batteries, energy light bulbs and mobile phones.

I'm also struggling to find places where I can drop unwanted goods off at and food that is nearing it's end date. It's not something we had an issue with in South Africa, everything was recycled and it was easy to do so. I guess this is just something I need to do a bit more research into.

Since moving to our new house the other side of Dubai, we've only been issued with 1 green bin which is for general waste, but I have now found somewhere to recycle cans, papers and plastic at our local Carrefour where I shop every week and we I have cut down on the amount of sugary drinks I have and the tap water here is drinkable if not still a bit warm, so only using one of the large bottles every 2 weeks or so.

It's been 7 years since we left the UK now and I still get cross at the lack of recycling and the amount of waste over here in Dubai. When I'm back in the UK, I have purple and pink bags for plastic and paper and a food bin that I use religiously. There's no way Im recycling food waste out here though, could you imagine the stench in the summer when temps reach 50c?

Irene - not the hurricane

Irene, pronounced Ireneee, is the neighbouring area to Centurion. In fact the golf estate is right on the edge and our electricity and water supply comes from Ireneee.

When I leave the back gate and turn towards the school the first place I come across is the charity shop.

This place has been a lifesaver to me, picking up bits and bobs, i.e sports equipment, household stuff and mainly books, I've read so many of them, they are so expensive to buy here as they're imported and where a book reads £11.99 it's priced in Rand at 200, which is almost double. I buy book for around £1 and return them, more of a lending library for me.
All funds from sales go to the mentally retarded and handicapped, their words not mine. Behind the shop there are many bungalows for people with learning difficulties to live in, there is little if no government funding, so I like to do my bit.
Next stop Ireneee dairy.

In fact they used to own all the land for miles round here and it is still a working dairy. they have a farm shop (over priced) and a restaurant.

However, in the summer it's not very pleasant eating with the smell of the farm. Local playgroups, mums with toddlers frequent it often as there are many animals and it is outdoor, public space, with grass and you can take picnics. Not many places like that around.
Ireneee dairy is a 'cash free' zone. this is becoming more popular now as the armed robbery risks are very high, so no cash, no robbery.

And then we drive on and we reach Jan Smutts, he was President twice, the same time as Winston Churchill, this place deserves it's own blog post.
Following on from there we reach the boys school, Cornwall Hill College.

The whole area is called Cornwall Hill, after a battle fought by the Duke of Cornwall in whenever. The boys house in school is Truro.
It's an amazing place, check out the cricket pavilion. There are 9 playing fields, put astro, tennis courts, a swimming pool 25ms long and cricket nets. The Italian football team used it as their base in the World cup.

kids aren't too impressed with the summer uniform, short trousers on a 16 year old?

From the school it's a very short drive to The Cornish Kettle and Plantland.

This is where I do my recycling, it is collected by a local charity and sold for funds.
The Cornish Kettle is delightful, there's a large pond, a play area and a couple of goats wandering around.
he staff here have been amazing, they've helped me out with information from buying a car to car tax and introduced me to various people when I've had a question they couldn't answer. They let me sit there for hours and don't mind if I only have coffee, they ask about the UK, the differences between the countries.
Then onto Ireneee Mall.

Yes, if you look closely that is indeed an upside down cow.
Again very similar to all the other Malls, in a security park and outdoors. Some very nice individual shops as well as the chain stores. This is where we go to the cinema, I prefer the kids to go to this mall in the evenings, especially if hubby is away as it's a much safer route for me to drive at night.
Anyway, that's my tour of Ireneee over and done with, just the Jan Smutts blog and market to follow, but I need to take some more pictures first.