Tourism & Hospitality | Wednesday 13 November, 2019 11:29 am |

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development authority (RAKTDA), Ras Al Khaimah Waste Management (WMA) and Ras Al Khaimah Public Services Department (PSD), came together recently to unveil the latest developments and significant milestones related to the sustainable tourism and waste management vision for the Emirate at the annual Hotel and Hospitality Sustainability event. 

The event was attended by H.E. Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, H.E. Eng. Ahmad Mohamed Al Hammadi, Director General of Public Services Department of Ras Al Khaimah, Eng. Sonia Nasser, Executive Director of Waste Management Agency at Ras Al Khaimah and Raki Phillips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, along with Ras Al Khaimah’s hotel representatives, Green Ambassadors and government entities who are directly involved in the Emirate’s sustainability agenda. 

The event agenda highlighted the latest updates in the recycling waste management initiatives set for the emirate, shared best practices and key learning in this sector, and announced the new targets and criteria planned for next year that will serve the overall goals of the Emirate.

In 2016, RAKTDA, WMA and PSD collaborated to launch new waste management guidelines for hotels and tourism establishments across the Emirate. As H.E Eng. Ahmad Mohamed Al Hammadi said: “This is indeed an important occasion for all of us involved in public environmental issues because it allows us to draw the attention of the hospitality sector yet again to one of the most important concern in modern times.” The new vision for the Emirate incorporated the world’s best practices in the sustainability arena, with the aim to increase waste recycling within the Emirate’s hotels from four to 75 per cent by 2021. The move was part of Ras Al Khaimah’s efforts to achieve the goals set out in the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda which included nation-wide criteria on increasing the contribution of clean energy and minimalizing waste. In 2018, the sustainable criteria was expanded to include water conservation. 

On this occasion, H.E. Dr Al Zeyoudi said: “Living in a harsh desert environment and importing 80 percent of our food has made us realize that we need to make sustainability a way of life and curb wasteful practices. The National Food Security Strategy 2051, launched last year in a bid to implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production and encourage investments in agri-tech, is part of our ongoing efforts to step up food security.”

H.E. Dr Al Zeyoudi commended the RAK Green Hotel scheme, a crucial contributor to the emirate’s drive to reach the 2021 UAE national target of diverting 75 percent of recyclable waste from landfills and to reducing the amount of waste produced by each resident to just 1.5 kg each day down from the current national average of 2.7 kg.

Raki Phillips, Chief Executive Officer of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority said, “As part of the roadmap that we set for the Emirate, our target was to recycle 30% of the waste of hotels and tourism establishments by end of 2018. Today, we are proud to announce that 26 hotels in Ras Al Khaimah have either met or exceeded the targets placed for them, which is an incredible development in such a short period. We are working closely with WMA to do a yearly inspection to monitor waste management practices of the hotel to ensure that the best practices we set for them are complied. Our next target is to focus on the guidelines which we announced recently to ensure food wastage treatment and the usage of cooking oil in the Emirate complies with or exceeds global standards.” 

“We have been monitoring and recording the weight of food wastage, recyclables and general waste collected and calculating the diversion rate for the year of 2018 for the hospitality industry in Ras Al Khaimah. Since the launch of the Hotel recycling initiative, we have increased the generation of recyclables from hotels from 60 tons to 90 tons monthly: an increase of 36 tons of glass, 27 tons of cardboard ad 27 tons of mixed recyclables per month. Such positive results give us the confidence in our capability to achieve our optimistic vision and we look forward to continuing the progress and to reaching our ultimate targets of achieving the 75% recycling diversion rate by 2021” said Eng. Sonia Nasser, Executive Director of Waste Management Agency of Ras Al Khaimah. 

In recognition of hotels that have made significant accomplishments in their waste managements and sustainable practices, Ras Al Khaimah awarded 6 hotels out of 30, who exceeded their targets and demonstrated excellent waste management practices. In addition, 30 hotels were recognised for their good waste management practices, who met their targets whilst 30 hotels were identified as needing to improve their waste management.

Moreover, earlier this year, Ras Al Khaimah announced a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which was signed between signed between the following government entities:  Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA), the Ras Al Khaimah Waste Management Agency (RAKWMA), Ras Al Khaimah Wastewater Agency (RAKWA) and Ras Al Khaimah Municipality (RAKMUN), to ensure that the cooking oil used in the Emirate complies with or exceeds global best practices in health, safety and waste disposal standards as part of an ongoing focus on sustainable tourism development of the Emirate.