Dubai, 21, June 2021:  Dubai Municipality honored the educational institutions that won the Plastic Containers Collection Competition in the government sector. The competition highlighted the plastic pollution issues and the harms of its use on the environment and natural resources, in order to raise the level of environmental awareness and positive environmental behavior among students to reduce the phenomena that negatively affect the environment.

Eng. Abdulmajeed Saifaie, Director of Waste Management Department at Dubai Municipality, emphasized that the third edition of the Plastic Containers Collection Competition, held in coordination with Dubai Educational Zone and teachers in the educational institutions, is considered as a continuous awareness workshop to motivate and encourage students on the importance of collecting and separating waste from the source and making maximum use of it.

“The event also included a number of awareness programs and lectures in schools in coordination with our strategic partners such as the Ministry of Education represented by the Dubai Educational Zone and a number of private sector companies supporting the Municipality in its community awareness efforts, to raise awareness on the importance of promoting environmental awareness among students, with the aim of reducing the use of plastic and encouraging the practice of a recycling culture,” he said.

“Approximately 19,000 students belonging to 63 government educational institutions participated in this competition, which is an increase of 11% over last year in the number of participating educational institutions. We were able to collect 5.5 tons of plastic containers in this third annual competition for educational institutions, which we recycled. We will endeavor to have the next edition of this competition with the participation of educational institutions from the private sector, and to enhance the educational sector’s awareness role through the implementation of cooperation agreements in the field of events and awareness programs in the field of sustainable waste management,” Saifaie added. 

Saifaie said that the winning institutions in this competition were honored with shields and cash rewards, in the presence of a representatives of the Ministry of Education and sponsoring bodies. 

As for the results of the winners, the first place in the competition was won by Jumeirah Model School for girls, whose students were able to collect 1074 kg of plastic containers, and the second place was won by Salma Al Ansariah School for Basic Education, whose students were able to collect 720 kg of plastic containers, and the school that won the third place was Al Raya School for Secondary Education for Girls, whose students were able to collect 387 kg of containers.