Solar-powered boats will help clean up Sharjah’s lagoons

The boats are currently being used along the Corniche at the Al Khaled Lagoon and are being operated by a staff from Tandeef, the waste collection and street cleaning division of Bee’ah.

SHARJAH // New solar-powered water-cleaning boats will remove up to 200 kilograms of waste a day from Sharjah’s lagoons, officials have said.

The boats are currently being used along the Corniche at the Al Khaled Lagoon and are being operated by staff from Tandeef, the waste collection and street cleaning division of Bee’ah.

The company already operates a fleet of zero-emission vehicles such as mobile waste compactors, urban vacuum cleaners, automated sweepers and street vacuums.

“Tandeef’s fleet of electric-powered vehicles has proven to be highly cost effective and easy to maintain,” said Khaled Al Huraimel, Bee’ah’s group chief executive.

“We strive to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from our company’s equipment and vehicles. These new boats further accelerate our journey towards achieving zero waste to landfill in the emirate by 2015.”

Tandeef inaugurated the country’s first residential recycling programme in 2012 with the introduction of 2,000 blue and green coloured bins – blue for recyclables and green for general waste – to replace the single-stream municipal bins.

Once collected, waste is taken to the waste-management centre in Al Sajaa where it is sorted and sent to the different facilities to treat solid waste, discarded tires, construction and demolition waste, electronic waste, waste water and sludge. The centre also features a range of other departments that focus on landfill re-engineering, education and outreach, as well as policy development.