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Dubai is requiring GPS trackers on trucks that transport grease from kitchens and restaurants to ensure that it is disposed of properly.

DUBAI // Businesses found flouting new guidelines governing the dumping of grease from commercial kitchens and restaurants will be fined up to Dh10,000 and risk losing their licences.

Dubai is home to the only recycling plant in the region able to cope with such waste – yet officials said yesterday that less than 10 per cent of it is being recycled.

Most of the waste is instead dumped illegally, or ends up clogging the city’s sewage system where it proves costly and difficult to remove.

In a bid to stop the practice, new guidelines from the municipality provide for fines ranging from Dh500 up to Dh10,000 and the loss of business licences for the worst offenders.

The new rules require that each removal tanker is equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) to track its movements.

Every vehicle will also be issued a coupon book that will record where waste has been received, and where it will be deposited.

Licensed operators have also been forbidden from using subcontractors.

Companies have six months to comply.

Faisal Al Hammadi, the head of technical support at the drainage and irrigation network department of Dubai Municipality, said the new rules were essential to tackling the problem.

He said the rules prohibit operators from mixing the grease with sewage and disposing of it at the sewage treatment plant in Al Aweer. They also prohibit operators of tankers from dumping the grease into the storm water drainage network or into the desert.

“Half of you are not working straight,” Mr Al Hammadi told a small gathering of licensed grease removal companies yesterday.

He said offences were all too common, but did not provide specific numbers.

“We caught some companies and gave them fines,” he said. “But this is not our goal to issue fines … we want to organise this business.”

There are about 17,000 restaurants and cafeterias in Dubai, and they are all required to install grease traps to prevent fats and other kitchen products from ending up in the sewer network. Grease traps have to be cleaned at least once a month, with the waste taken to the Dh15 million grease recycling plant in Al Aweer, which has been operating for two years.

The plant is run by a local company, Al Serkal Group, on behalf of Dubai Municipality. Tanker companies are required to pay 50 fils for every gallon of grease they offload.

While the plant is capable of recycling 25,000 gallons of grease every day, it operates at less than half its capacity, receiving an average of 9,000 gallons a day, said Elham Pourtangestani, the plant manager.

“The problem is illegal transporters who do not send the waste to the recycling plant,” she said.

Ms Pourtangestani estimated that Dubai produces about 100,000 gallons of grease per day.

There are about 20 grease removal companies in the emirate. Yesterday, managers and owners at those companies complained they faced unfair competition from operators who cut corners, and that the new rules would make their businesses more difficult to run.

Ziad Alany, who owns Bio Environmental Services, said his company charges Dh250 for cleaning. Few people realised how difficult the business is, he said.

“If you work legally, you will have to close your company,” he said.

Source : https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/dh10-000-fines-for-businesses-found-dumping-grease-illegally-1.567044?videoId=5771275459001

DUBAI – With nearly one-third of grease from city restaurants getting dumped illegally, the Dubai Municipality has issued new regulations for eateries and cooking oil waste collection companies in Dubai.

Grease trap cleaning companies have to install high-tech GPS tracking devices to locate and monitor their tankers and staff before they renew their permits next year. These companies and eateries should also use custom-made coupons that will help tally records of collection of grease from eateries and its disposal at the only recycling plant approved by the civic body, the Municipality said on Monday.

It also warned that companies failing in adhering to the new regulations will lose their licenses and hefty fines will be imposed on restaurants dumping grease in garbage bins and sewage lines and those trading with unauthorised cleaning companies.

According to officials from the Municipality and Al Serkal Envirol Grease Trap Waste Recycling Plant, eateries in Dubai produce nearly 30,000 gallons of grease per day. However, the plant in Al Aweer receives less than 10,000gallons of grease only. Officials said the remaining grease collected from the grease traps in various eateries is being dumped in sewage networks, deserts or in other emirates.

Twenty-three companies have been approved for cleaning grease traps in eateries and transporting it to the plant. However, Faisal Ahmed Al Hammadi, head of the Administration and Technical Support Office at the Drainage and Irrigation Department, said almost half of them have violated the municipal rules regarding disposal of grease and many have been fined.

Director of the department Talib Abdul Kareem Julfar said most of the companies in the market were mixing grease with sewage water as fees for treating sewage is much cheaper than that for recycling restaurant grease. “If you have to pay just Dh20 for treating 10,000 gallons of sewage, recycling that much of grease would cost you Dh5,000 as it is a difficult and costly procedure. Companies don’t want to pay that much money.”

As a result, Julfar said, a lot of grease accumulates in the sewage lines and in the inlet building of the Municipality’s sewage treatment plant. “Our network, pumping station and sewer lines get blocked frequently because of grease. It becomes like cement and we have to hammer it and remove it physically.”

Elham Pourtangestani, Plant Manager with Al Serkal Envirol, noted that fat, oil and grease from eateries can cause blocks in sewer lines sending sewage into homes or restaurants and that is an open invitation for disease and illnesses.

She said the plant will distribute booklets of Envirol coupons free of cost to cleaning companies while the municipality said it will allow companies that have already installed GPS devices to integrate their system with the centralised server provided by a company assigned for recording the operations of the trucks. The GPS solutions offered by this company record the locations, routes, and landmarks visited by cleaning trucks and view vehicle information on electronic maps via the internet, apart from identifying their drivers and monitoring their speed.

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/general/dubai-lays-down-tougher-rules-for-grease-disposal-by-eateries

Dubai: Restaurants in Dubai have been given guidelines for the disposal of fats, oils and grease by the Department of Drainage and Irrigation in Dubai Municipality.

They are required to install grease traps/interceptors to separate waste and to clean them on a regular basis to comply with public health regulations.

If edible oil is tipped down the sink, it can contaminate the water supply. It is thought that one litre of oil can contaminate a million litres of water. Oil is lighter than water and so can coagulate on the inside of pipes, proving hazardous for kitchen environments and sewage treatment plants.

The grease and waste will be disposed of at the Dubai Municipality Al Serkal Envirol Recycling Plant in Al Aweer, which was established in 2008. Statistics on the amount of waste collected and disposed of is recorded. The recycled waste can be used to make soap, candles, paint and other materials such as polymers and biofuels, for example.

Source : https://gulfnews.com/uae/environment/restaurants-get-guidelines-on-disposal-of-fats-and-grease-1.828523