In UAE, Emirates Environment Group (EEG) is arranging various guest lectures to enlighten people. One such community lecture was conducted on 29^th. January. This time the guest speaker was Mr. Hassan Makki, the director Sewerage and Irrigation network department, Dubai Municipality.

Mr. Makki is a wonderful speaker with 20 years of vast experience in the field of waste management. He has been awarded by the Government of UAE many a times for his meaningful work towards sustainable development. His lecture was entitled 'Waste Management and Recycling : The Way Forward'. He stressed upon the definitions of waste, sustainable development and many other words that we use in our daily lives. He also pointed out that the 3R policy is not the strongest policy to reduce waste, rather we must avoid or try to avoid generating waste is the first place. He also indicated various methods which are being used by various countries to control waste.

Singapore and the European countries like Germany and Holland are leading the way for the world in handling waste in a most efficient way by reducing land filling quantum each year.. He also enlightened us on various methods like ?Green Dot system? which is presently being use in many European countries (Germany is a pioneer), ?Integrated waste Management System? etc.

From statistics it is learnt that Singapore is one of the leading countries which recycle/re-use maximum % of waste generated where as UAE send maximum waste in landfill and here lies the danger in regards to environmental issues. At the end, both Mr. Makki & Ms. Habiba Al Marashi, founder of EEG, pointed out that a lot of awareness to be spread and lots of work need to be carried out in UAE to tackle these issues as the situation is not very encouraging till now considering the fact that UAE generates huge solid waste (1000 kg/person/year) which is more double than most of the countries.