UDC celebrates Global Recycling Day & World Water Day

United Development Company (UDC), the master developer of The Pearl and Gewan islands, held two campaigns aimed at protecting the marine environment.The "Beach Clean-up Drive" at Bahri Villas South beach and the "World Water Day" awareness campaign promoted the usage of automated water taps instead of traditional ones.These initiatives were launched to commemorate "Global Recycling Day", which is celebrated annually on March 18, and "World Water Day", celebrated on March 22, highlighting the role that recycling plays in reducing waste and preventing water pollution, leading to a healthier marine environment.In partnership with Seashore Recycling, UDC and its affiliate companies, Qatar Cool, Ronautica Middle East, Hospitality Development Company, and Corinthia Yacht Club, participated in a beach clean-up at Bahri Villas South at The Pearl Island.The campaign saw the active participation of residents, staff, families, and volunteers.Recycling is integrated into almost every aspect of UDC’s operations, contributing to a healthy ecosystem for the entire community as part of globally recognised waste management mechanisms, recycling strategy, and other environmentally-friendly initiatives, such as paperless transactions, automated waste collection system, environmentally-friendly packaging, smart lighting, and usage of single-use drinking bottles to eliminate plastic usage.The annual Global Recycling Day held here demonstrated the strength and unity of The Pearl Island community in their willingness to keep the environment clean, and comes as an opportunity to showcase team efforts and community engagement in protecting The Pearl Island’s shores and coastlines.With this year's theme, *Be the change you want to see in the world, World Water Day 2023 was celebrated with a message that encouraged the community to take action by changing the way they use, consume, and manage water by switching all their water taps into automated ones, emphasising that this simple change can result in up to 70% reduction in water consumption across the entire island.Automated water taps are useful due to their ability to reduce water consumption through a touchless sensor that allows water to flow when needed in an effortless manner.UDC has always been driven by water sustainability, supporting the objective of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: Water and Sanitation for all by 2030.To achieve this, UDC has developed initiatives and projects, which include the placement of automated water taps in all offices that will reduce water consumption by 22,200cu m, as well as substituting freshwater with recycled and treated sewage effluent water to irrigate the entire island landscape which spans a land area of 650,000sq m (equivalent to 91 football pitches).This has contributed to collectively saving more than 8bn litres of potable water (equivalent to more than 3,300 Olympic-size swimming pools) leading to a healthier marine environment.In 2021, UDC installed 10 seabins in Porto Arabia Marina, which have also had a substantial impact on the reduction of plastics and debris that ends up in the water around coastal areas of the Island.The seabins resulted in the collection of over one tonne of marine litter (plastic and other waste), and because each seabin filters approximately 600,000 litres of water per day for plastic and microplastics, almost 399mn litres of water was filtered (equivalent to 159 Olympic-size swimming pools).With the two campaigns, UDC continues to show its commitment to engaging its employees and community towards positive change and promoting environmental awareness at its workplace, as well as The Pearl and Gewan Islands.