- Title: From hotel kitchens to farms, Dubai transforms waste into compost
- Date: 30th May 2024
- Summary: DUBAI, UAE (MAY 24, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORKERS SORTING FOOD WASTE, THAT WAS GATHERED FROM HOTELS IN DUBAI AT RELOOP'S FACILITY, BEFORE SENDING IT TO COMPOST FACILITY VARIOUS OF WORKERS SENDING SORTED FOOD WASTE TO CONVEYOR BELT (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER OF RELOOP, YOUSSEF CHEHADE, SAYING: "If we look here at the farming industry, one of the main challenges i
- Embargoed: 13th June 2024 09:07
- Keywords: COMPOST Dubai FOOD RELOOP UAE WASTE
- Location: Dubai, UAE
- City: Dubai, UAE
- Country: UAE
- Topics: Environment,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA002634429052024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: From Dubai’s hotel kitchens to local farms, a UAE-based company is gathering food waste and transforming it into compost in a country where growing food on sandy soils is a challenge.
Launched in 2021, Reloop, a circular economy digital platform, helps industries in the UAE to divert their food waste away from landfills.
“We have diverted more than a million kilograms of food waste from landfills. And that amounts to more than 1,200,000 kg of carbon emissions,” said co-founder of Reloop, Youssef Chehade, as workers sorted fruit and vegetable waste.
Chehade adds that more than 100 hotels and restaurants are contributing their food waste to Reloop so far.
After collection and sorting, the food waste is then taken to Tadweer Waste Treatment LLC - a government-certified group, that has a composting facility. Here the food waste is mixed with landscaping waste and screened. The mixture takes up to 12 weeks to complete its natural composting process to become what Chehade called 'brown gold’.
Finally, the packaged product makes its way to farms across the UAE, where it aids farmers by enriching their soil.
“One of the most important components in the food system is the presence of natural organic fertilizer,” said owner of a local farm in Dubai's Hatta region, Hamad Khalfan al-Mutawa, while using Reloop’s compost.
In 2023, the UAE announced an action plan to reduce food loss and waste in the country by 50 per cent by 2030 by creating new social norms, scaling best practices, and enabling policies across the entire food ecosystem.
(Production: Abir Al Ahmar) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None