The National ran an article about waste. Dubai produced 27 million tonnes of waste in 2007. This was from a population of 1.5 million people. If you do the math, the per capita production of waste in Dubai in 2007 was a little over 20 tons per person. The average per capita waste production in the USA is a little less than 1 ton per person.
You can argue that much of this waste is generated by the hotel and tourism industry as well as all the massive construction projects. But you can’t escape the fact the Dubai, for all its glitz and glamour, generates one hell of a lot of trash.
Dubai likes to brag about their “green” buildings. But you cannot escape the fact that living in the desert and building such unlikely venues as indoor ski slopes and mega mega shopping malls, requires a lot of energy and generates a lot of waste.
For the record, I’m not a believer in the Cult of Global Warming and I think Carbon Footprints are load of BS, but even I can see that Dubai needs to do something to clean up its act. If the Sheikh put the effort into waste disposal that he puts into building monuments to hubris, Dubai could become a world leader in recycling and waste disposal.
This could offset the perception that Emiratis are a rich, spoiled, wasteful and lazy people who have no concern for the welfare of those outside their tribe.
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