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Composting food scraps in Dubai

Last updated: May 11, 2022

Summary

Local UAE's startup is aiming to provide a comprehensive solution when it comes to food waste. The Beta project is so far engaging the public and households to join the food scraps collection initiative. Every week they will deliver a pot to each household and also pick up the collected waste. They offer instructions on which waste is suitable and which one is not. They turn the food scraps into the compost and provide monthly informative reports on how much waste and CO2 emissions were saved. The households pay a monthly fee of around 30 US dollars for the offered service and the project is connecting 65 households to date.

In the future, they are planning to connect the whole process with an interactive platform/app and grow local superfoods on the compost-enriched soil.

Problem

Recycling in the UAE is spreading and it is becoming more and more popular and accessible. However, food scrap recycling/composting has been so far a very small niche. Only a few engaged families, personally interested in a zero-waste lifestyle have been forming social groups and supporting each other in the composting journey.

The problem is mostly a lack of time, interest, or space, to do such activities as composting is. There is however no lack of interest among the citizens of the UAE, who are becoming more and more environmentally conscious.

This project is handling four SDGs:

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production

SDG 13 - Climate Action

SDG 15 - Life on Land

The Waste Lab Beta is helping to reduce food waste, reducing waste ending up in landfills, and reducing CO2 emissions and enriching local soil.

Solution

To make composting widely accessible to anyone, even to those people who do not have an interest in such activities but still would like to contribute to the UAE's emission and waste reduction, The Waste Lab developed a project to make this process simple and scalable. For a small fee of around 30 US dollars per month, they provide bins, a weekly collection service, and also tips on how to correctly collect the food scraps. They also provide monthly impact reports. The Waste Lab is creating compost out of the collected scraps to enrich the soil. This service is a part of The Waste Lab Beta project.

Future activities will involve an interactive app and also growing of local superfoods.

Outcome

Up to date, The Waste Lab Beta is connecting 65 households in Dubai, and collecting weekly their food scraps. The last monthly report (Dec21-Apr22) suggested that the project saved 6 tons of CO2 emissions. This startup is still looking for further investors and partners in order to expand.