Absurdly tall skyscrapers, overfishing and other environmental issues tarnish Dubai’s green image, but projects such as the new Reyoutilizer app at least makes recycling a bit easier.
Developed by two twenty-year-olds for Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, Reyoutilizer simplifies the recycling collection process. Instead of having users call in their preferences for a collection time, they now use the app on their Androids or iPhones.
Each household is permitted to make an appointment once a month to have Union Paper Mills – the nation’s first recycling initiative of its kind – collect their recyclable paper, plastic and aluminum cans. If the customer is not satisfied with the time slot the company chooses for them, they have the option of changing their appointment time.
According to The National, the app allows the company to reduce their costs since they can streamline the collection process. They also stipulate that it is necessary to make the fuel and labor expenditures worthwhile by mandating that customers have a sizable bounty for them to pick up.
What paper pulp Union Paper Mills isn’t able to process themselves they sell to similar facilities, along with the aluminum and plastic cans.
Before Dubai came to host two of the world’s “most sustainable” buildings,” it languished in Abu Dhabi’s eco-shadow. Like an older, wiser and certainly richer father, neighboring Abu Dhabi has led the reigns to greater environmental awareness.
But a series of recent initiatives demonstrates that Dubai is concerned to reduce its overall environmental impact – if not for the planet’s sake, certainly to reduce costs. And making recycling easy by offering a convenient pick up service is a great way to compel citizens to recycle.
Trying to figure out what compels people to recycle, Stanford School of Business came up with these two main premises.
“Monitoring actual quantities of material recycled, researchers found that urgent, negative information (loss–framed messages) worked best to get people to recycle when paired with concrete instructions for recycling,” according to their research.
“‘Feel good’ information (gain-framed messages) about what recycling accomplishes also worked when it was matched with statements about why recycling is important more generally.”
Recycling is still a budding practice not only in Dubai but throughout the greater Gulf region. Let’s hope Reyoutilizer ends up catalyzing some kind of awesome change.
Image of paper for recycling, Shutterstock
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
