Today, the Center of Waste Management- Abu Dhabi launched its innovative and electrohydraulic underground waste system across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The Launch, which took place in Khalidyah area, was attended by HE Mohammed Ahmed Al Bawardi, Secretary General of Abu Dhabi ’s Executive Council, Chairman of the Center for Waste Management - Abu Dhabi and HE Majid Al-Mansouri, the center Managing Director.
As a part of the initial implementation stage, which will include 31 locations in Abu Dhabi, the center will begin operating this system on the 10th of this month and initially will operate at three locations weekly, said Majed Al Mansorui, the center’s Managing Director
He said the Center of Waste Management – Abu Dhabi has worked on implementing a new advanced underground collection system to replace the existing bins. This system will eliminate odours, scavengers and litter around collection points. It will also improve the aesthetics and ensure a cleaner environment for the residents of Abu Dhabi.
The new containers have a larger capacity which will increase the volume of waste collected, which will reduce the number of truck movements throughout the city on a daily basis.
The Second Stage:
The Center will commence the second stage of this system in the more densely populated areas of Abu Dhabi and will focus attention on specific locations taking into consideration waste quantities, volume of waste containers, daily trips and numbers of collection points.
The study will incorporate all the components of waste, in order to design the new system that helps in implementing the source separation concept and the collection of recyclables, according to the waste management strategy requirements.
System advantages:
The new underground system will be installed as a pilot project at 31 strategic locations in the Khalidyah, Tourist Club Area, the Grand Mosque and across the city of Al-Ain to examine the feasibility of the system. The sites have been chosen on several bases such as the volume of generated waste and population densities.
Large containers are encased within a metal frame and then sunk inside a concrete sleeve in the ground. The only visible element of the system at ground level is a steel platform a receiver unit through which the refuse is deposited. Pedestrians, street cleaners and small shops will be able to deposit their waste at street level.
The containers are fitted with censors sending alerts when full, enabling more efficient waste collection by reducing unnecessary traffic. When the containers are full, specially adapted waste trucks will lift them out of the ground, empty the containers and replace them.
The new underground system will provide centralised and strictly regulated refuse collection facilities for approved users, while barring access to non-approved users and preventing unauthorised dumping of waste.
The new system will reduce the number of daily trips from 3 times/ day to once every 2 days, which will reduce the daily cost of waste collection, the fuel consumption and reduce the carbon footprint according to Koyoto Protocol.
System improvement:
The center has worked on improving the system by adding developments such as;
• data storage and sweeping cards for opening the top bin that helps in calculating the daily quantities from each building.
• Increasing of the storage area of the system to be 20 cu m instead of 15 cu m which will reduce the daily collection cost by 25%.
• Using underground collection system consisting of 3 different containers that helps in implementing the source separation concept.
Future Vision:
“The Center is working on designing a new collection system for areas with low population density, which will be implemented in the future phases of improving the collection of the waste” said Al Mansouri.
The Center is also designing a new system for collecting Islamic manuscripts from the source (Mosques), which will be the first system of it’s kind to be implemented in the world.
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