Emirates Environmental Group


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The Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) is an non-profit, non-governmental environmental group founded by Habiba al Marashi along with 12 other members in 1991 in Dubai. It was originally started as an organisation to recycle paper, with around 100 corporate, student and individual members. Today, it has more than 2,000 volunteers.

Its office is in Jumeirah, Dubai. Its associates include Dubai Aluminum (DUBAL), wasl Asset Management Group, Melbourne IT digital brand services, and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.

Recycling campaigns
EEG's recycling campaigns include the recycling of paper, aluminum, batteries, and mobile phones.

One of EEG's first recycling campaigns was paper recycling. Since the 1990s, it has collected 9,115,782 kg of paper from its members.

EEG gives a lot of priority to can collection as it is harmful to the environment and as lot of energy is needed for making new cans, and it is a cheaper source of aluminum for its associate member, Dubai Aluminum. From January to September 2011, EEG has collected 161,908 kg of aluminium cans, which is mostly from Dubai, followed by other emirates of the United Arab Emirates.

EEG collects battery cells as they contain mercury and cadmium, which seep into soil and make it infertile, pollute the air and water. They are collected not to recycle, but are given to the Dubai Municipality for safe disposal. Since the campaign's inception in 2006 until September 2011, EEG has collected 5388 kg of battery cells.

From 2000s (decade), Nokia has teamed up with EEG to recycle mobile phones, as they contain harmful materials like plastic, copper and aluminium. The mobile phones collected by EEG are sent to Nokia factories so that they can be recycle to make new phones. The total amount of mobiles collected are 4,737 as of late 2011.