Bee’ah, renowned for its excellence in waste management and public cleansing, has a rather enviable fleet of street cleaning and sweeping equipment that is contributing immensely to the UAE’s cleanliness and sustainability mission.

Bee’ah recently expanded its street sweeping and street cleaning services in Dubai as part of wider plans to grow throughout the United Arab Emirates. Moreover, many notable waste management contracts in support of this objective were recently signed in the Emirate of Dubai.

Bee’ah’s street sweeping history goes back to when the waste management company signed an agreement with Sharjah City Municipality by launching its division Tandeef to become the exclusive provider of street cleaning, sweeping, waste management, waste collection, and city beautification services for 20 years, while expanding its geographic scope of operations to include the entire Emirate of Sharjah and providing the community with environmental awareness and recycling initiatives.

Consequently, Tandeef entered into a working relationship with the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA), supplying this closed community with waste collection, street sweeping and curb side cleaning services. Additionally, Bee’ah provides environmental expertise to the HFZA and its investors. This is done through environmental advisory services, a solid waste collection and management system for all generated dry solid hazardous and non-hazardous waste, as well as encouraging investors to implement the environmental principles of the 3Rs (reduce, re-use, recycle) and resource management, to contribute to a better and cleaner environment.

Street cleaning technology

The role of technology in street cleaning and sweeping is vital. Cleaning vast stretches of streets, roadways and highways across the desert landscape is a very difficult task. The roads in the Middle East, whether inside cities or highways, pose a challenging environment to Bee’ah’s street cleaning team. New strategies to mitigate the challenges require developing new ideas and new approaches to cleaning. The innovative technology applications and solutions that focus on environmental protection have caught up with this demand and are now vital to securing a clean environment. Street cleaning services have benefitted from adopting mechanised sweepers, electric-power driven sweeping vehicles, and power management technology, and as a result Bee’ah is securing more contracts, expanding further into the UAE.

Street cleaning and sweeping technology in the UAE is in the midst of an evolution. According to Fahad Shehail, Chief Operating Officer, Bee’ah, “Over the years, the technological advancements have continued an accelerated pace, resulting in a present situation, whereby highly efficient and effective cleaning machines are being used to keep the UAE clean.

Street cleaning and sweeping technology in the UAE is in the midst of an evolution. According to Fahad Shehail, Chief Operating Officer, Bee’ah, “Over the years, the technological advancements have continued an accelerated pace, resulting in a present situation, whereby highly efficient and effective cleaning machines are being used to keep the UAE clean.

Tandeef’s electric road sweepers are leading the way in the UAE. The UAE is also leading the way in the adoption of street cleaning technology for the wider Middle East region.” UAE recently witnessed the launch of electricpowered street sweeping vehicles in Sharjah, as Tandeef, Bee’ah’s waste collection and city wide street cleaning division rolled out a new range of electric-powered vehicles that enhance operations to clean the city’s streets and collect estimated waste.

These new electric-powered vehicles are equipped with ‘zero emission’ mobile equipment such as new waste compacters, urban vacuum cleaners, automated sweepers, street vacuums and the region’s first solar-powered boats that can collect up to 200 kg of waste from Sharjah’s lagoons and floating debris. “This technology has played a vital role in the growth of Bee’ah, highlighting both our passion for state-of-the-art technology and equipment, and drawing attention to our wider environmental capabilities,” continues Shehail.

This is yet another first for Sharjah, as part of the company’s new ‘zero emission’ fleet; “We are working to keep the environment safe and pure for residents in Sharjah. Bee’ah will continue to lead the way towards sustainability and waste management in the UAE, keeping us on-track to achieve our aim of zero-waste to landfill,” Shehail says.

Street fleet

Bee’ah has undergone a continual acquisition of new and leading technologically advanced vehicles in its pursuit of world leading environmental services. Tandeef’s current fleet includes many types of street sweeping and cleaning vehicles: Small Walkway Street Sweepers, Medium Inner Road Street Sweepers, Large Main Road Mechanical Sweepers, and Vacuum Vehicles. The road sweeper vehicles offer several advantages over manual cleaning. When dealing with larger areas, manually-operated sweeping equipment can take hours and even days to complete, and by the time it’s done, it is in need of sweeping again.

Thanks to the build-up of high-tech sweepers and cleaning vehicles, road sweeping can be completed more efficiently and disposed of in one single go, rather than in individual collection of bags. This method also has a low impact on the environment, as a result of fewer plastic refuse bags being required.

Sustainability is the key

At the heart of Bee’ah’s vision is its commitment to sustainability. Through a wide variety of initiatives currently underway - many of which have significant positive implications for improving sustainability in the region – the company is taking ambitious steps towards this goal.

“Understanding the connection between our attitudes and behaviours towards recycling and sustainability and the impacts this has upon our environment will better allow us to make informed choices leading to a more eco-friendly UAE,” contributes Shehail. Following the success of waste management in Sharjah, including the company’s agreement with Chinook Sciences to build the world’s largest waste-to-energy plant in Sharjah, Bee’ah has built a reputation as a company that only employs the latest and most innovative technology to tackle and successfully overcome the sustainability challenges in the Emirate.

Typical of sustainability challenges, street cleaning is a particularly complex situation to overcome. With the long held aim of addressing the specific needs of residents, Bee’ah has also conducted awareness training sessions and held events and activities to teach people and their children the importance of protecting the environment, so more people become aware and educate each other, echoing the message to others within their social groups and society.

Bee’ah, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment & Water, the Sharjah Municipality, and other government organisations within the Emirates is continually intensifying efforts to promote public health and environmental sustainability in the UAE.

CASE STUDY

In January 2010, Bee’ah launched its division Tandeef, which started servicing Al Majaz Area – the largest community in Sharjah, which is home to about 300,000 of Sharjah’s nearly 1 million residents. Later, in February, more sectors were added to the programme. The services provided by Tandeef include scheduled waste collection, public space and street vacuuming, cleaning, and sweeping. This was accomplished thanks to Tandeef’s team of international and regional fleet management professionals from the UAE and around the world.

To ensure the highest standards, and in accordance with best practice, all of Tandeef’s staff undergo rigorous training and certification before commencing operations. Once they are ready to begin duties, they are assigned one of Tandeef’s fleet of vehicles, which includes a range of superior and all-purpose specific vehicles ranging from those used for refuse collection and line-haul long range transport, large street sweepers, mini street sweepers, vacuuming machines to two-stream collection vehicles for waste and recycling.

Tandeef is also responsible for the upkeep of the three-stream pedestrian recycling programme that was initially introduced by Bee’ah in 2007. Three-stream recyclers consist of three separate containers for paper, cardboard and plastic, glass and cans, and all other waste. Bee’ah uses these recyclers as a vehicle for furthering education on environmental sustainability by providing advertising opportunities on them for corporations to deliver Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) messages and communications.

Further technological progress includes GPS vehicle tracking and computerised route-optimisation systems in Bee’ah vehicles – which have won awards for their ingenuity and success. These are used to maximise vehicle service efficiency and reduce environmental impact due to emissions. Tandeef is also in charge of collecting waste from Sharjah’s Khalid and Al Khan Lagoons via cleaning boats introduced earlier.