Need some relief from those Rising Electricity Bills in Dubai?

Living in Dubai has never been easy. A jewel of the Middle East, it offers its citizens the best of the best. A great place to bring up children and lead a fruitful life, that’s balanced between work and society; Dubai offers a lot to its residents.

But there is one thing that the residents of Dubai have been unhappy with and those are the utility bills. The electricity bills only keep on rising and it is not that DEWA is after everyone’s stack of greens; but just that it is getting rather expensive to provide electricity to the city. There is no way out for residents and commercial establishments alike — you either pay or live in darkness. The weather of the Middle East is not very forgiving either.



There is however one simple way to reduce your energy consumption and that is switching to newer appliances. Newer appliances save a lot when it comes to your power bills by making efficient use of electricity. This happens thanks to the quality copper components that are used in newer appliances leading to lesser wastage while delivering more power. It is wise to buy something new because newer appliances are always built to be more energy efficient. Older appliances will always consume a lot more. Be it a refrigerator or a boiler, newer is always better. Even when it comes to computers, newer processors are designed to consume a lot less electricity while delivering more power.

But don’t dispose that old boiler away in the trash just yet! Once in the trash, these appliances end up at landfills and incinerators where they are either burned or dumped, leading to polluting ground water or the air deteriorating the quality of any one of the two.

Quality copper components come from quality copper scrap from Dubai’s scrap yards and virgin copper from the mines. Scrap which is recovered from older appliances are modified and processed into better quality raw materials for manufacturing newer and greener products. This apart from saving money for manufacturers and delivering greener products at the consumer end also helps save the environment. Recycling copper and other metals from appliances although being a tough job, helps reduce the need for mining and helps manufacturers and brands deliver greener products that have been made from recycled metals.

Modern appliance centres today will even take your older appliances and offer discounts on newer ones encouraging recycling and saving them from reaching the landfills. So what are you waiting for? Take your appliances to your nearest appliance centre and replace them with new ones and see your electricity bills drop!

Recycle your old PC - Don’t trash it!

Personal computers have come a long way. From the good old 486 to the latest and greatest in quad-core technology; PC’s have only gotten more and more powerful over time. What’s shocking though is that although there is such a great emphasis by companies and manufacturers to deliver better computing power in the hands of the common man, nothing much has been done when it comes to creating a cosy retirement home for those old systems. What we are talking about here are those old or older systems that have broken down after extended use and have for long stopped serving their primary purpose.

Statistics show that about 50 million tonnes of old electronics are dumped at landfills worldwide on a daily basis; which means that not only are those aged systems containing toxic materials entering the lot, but also recent systems which are probably a decade old. A typical piece of electronic equipment — especially one like a PC with many circuit boards — may contain up to 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) of lead, along with lower levels of mercury, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium and other toxic chemicals. These elements are all toxic at varying exposure levels.

Technology is pacing ahead these days with newer, faster and more power efficient computing systems helping deliver more in a shorter span of time. Although these newer systems are more efficient, they also shorten the buying cycle on the consumer end. Some companies do have a recycling plan set in place, where they would gladly accept the old system and send them in for recycling rather than letting the customer trash them in the garbage.

A lot of parts in a PC can be reused and researchers are working hard to make the process of recycling motherboard components simpler. Heat sinks from motherboards and casings are all made of aluminium which can contribute as aluminium scrap in Dubai. Wires can be stripped with a wire stripper and the copper can be sold along with the copper windings of the various motors that are present as copper scrap in Dubai. Scrap metal businesses in Dubai buy such metals because they have value and because every single contribution counts; and helps us take one step further when it comes to establishing a cleaner and greener environment.

Scrap Metal Traders in the UK take a Hit for the common Good

The scrap metal trading industry in the UK is well-known throughout the globe for its quality contributions of both ferrous and non-ferrous scrap. The birthplace of the industrial revolution, the United Kingdom may have had a head start compared to the rest of the world when it comes to the judicial use of scrap metals, but today they have become increasingly famous for something else, some unwanted attention in the form of crime.

Scrap metal thefts have reached an all time high in the UK and it is the industry only, that seems to be killing itself. Itinerant collectors have been gathering scrap off street corners or homes; and although this does not seem to harm anyone, it is paving the way for those who steal scrap and sell it for profits. Picking up something that one does not have a use for with permission is one thing; but stealing pieces of copper and other metals out of functional mechanisms is downright theft. This gradually led to problems because scrap metal dealers would gladly accept stolen scrap without knowing or even enquiring about where it came from.



The government finally decided to take action in form of passing a bill that introduces:

• Tougher rules for scrap dealers who want licences


• Greater powers for police and local authorities to suspend and revoke licences


• A single national register of licensed dealers

How this helps, is that it creates a database where every scrap trading company has to compulsorily make an entry regarding every deal with details about the seller who brings in the scrap. The information that the national register receives gets even more secure with a cashless transactions for small businesses and householders; bringing in more details about the seller helping keep criminals and theft in control. Heavy fines would be inflicted upon traders who fail to produce identification of sellers who bring in the scrap. This would also lead to their licences getting revoked, helping them and the industry benefit from the same.

Every Organisation Can make a Conscious Effort and do their bit to Save the Environment

Every organisation out here in Dubai generates trash or garbage on a daily basis. The bigger the organisation or business, the more will be garbage generated every single day. This so called ‘garbage’ includes a lot of recyclable items. If you happen to work in a hospital, you would know that all medical waste is disposed off or incinerated at a secure location. In the case of a corporate office, an entire day’s worth of trash or garbage can contain, paper, food waste, metal in the form of paper clips, pins, cans from beverage containers, paper mugs from the water coolers, and plastic packaging and printer cartridges from printers etc. In fact there is so much of all of this, generated on a daily basis that bins need to be emptied almost twice a day to keep the office spick n span. In the case of a food business there is a lot more garbage in the form of plastics used to hold food and metal beverage cans that often end up together in trash which reaches landfills.



The environment cannot protect itself, which means that it is definitely up to us to do the needful. Make it a point in your office to do the following and it will make a difference.

• Re-use printer cartridges, print documents on both sides if the document is meant for filing purposes.


• Reduce the use of paper—go paperless if possible. A paperless system helps make documents accessible digitally and enables better transparency within an organisation.


• In the case of plastic cartons and beverage cans, it is advisable to place separate bins for the same helping the waste department deal with them quicker, helping them reach recycling centres and scrap yards in Dubai quicker. This helps get that same can back to the market shelf rather than ending up in a landfill or getting incinerated.


• Try and segregate the so called trash and you will notice that it will pay you back to some extent.
  


• Most scrap metal traders in Dubai will pay you for delivering metal cans in large quantities on a regular basis. The same goes for recycling companies who can make use of paper and plastics generated at the workplace.

If you are a large organisation, it makes sense to tie up with a local recycler and reduce your carbon footprint by doing the same

Lucky Recycling is pleased to participate as a logistics partner in the EEG’s Can Collection Drive 2012

Another collection drive comes across and we at The Lucky Group of Companies are proud to extend our support.

We at The Lucky Group have always been a company that cares for both its employees and strives to improve our environmental quality while progressing towards a clean and safer place to live and work for our future generations. We do this by continually participating in local events around us here in Dubai where we have our headquarters and do so year after year providing solutions for those who help save the environment like the Emirates Environmental Group.



Extracting Aluminium Ore from Bauxite is a resource hungry and energy intensive process which needs a lot of energy to fuel the large Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF). Recycling Aluminium that already exists in the form of cans takes up only 5% of the former’s energy requirement.

The Lucky Group in Dubai technically is all about saving the environment. Our modern facilities be it our scrap metal recycling facility at Dubai and Qatar or our secondary and semi-primary aluminium alloy production facility at Jebel Ali both strive to procure, process and make available quality feedstock and processed raw materials for our clients satiating the needs of local manufacturers reducing Dubai’s carbon footprint as a whole when it comes to producing metals in the UAE.

We also abide by our firm’s environmental policy of continuously progressing towards an environmentally friendly infrastructure, including regular and continued reassessments of our physical operations, encouraging a sustainable workplace that promotes an environmentally-conscious organizational culture. This not only helps us be more efficient but also saves the environment helping us provide and promote the use of green materials for our clients.

The Lucky Group is proud to announce the launch of the region’s first-ever Copper futures contract.

Riz Shaban – Commercial Manager of Lucky Recycling accepted the invitation as a Panellist for the press conference held on Apr 19, 2012 to announce the launch of the region’s first-ever Copper futures contract established by the Dubai Gold Commodities Exchange. Following suit DGCX on Friday April 13^th finally launched the trading of copper futures.

Copper being the third most widely-used metal in the world finally made its way to The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange in the form of copper futures which until then was traded at a number of international exchanges. The relentlessly growing demand for copper from investors and the industry finally convinced the DGCX into copper futures which they think would be highly attractive to both retail and institutional buyers.

DGCX is an initiative of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), Financial Technologies (India) Limited and the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX). Their range of futures contracts offers participants of the physical commodities markets, such as producers, manufacturers and end users, with a sophisticated means of hedging their price risk exposure.



The Lucky Group of Companies has been on the forefront when it comes to scrap metal trading and recycling in the Middle East. With their headquarters in Dubai, UAE and recycling facilities in Dubai and Qatar; secondary aluminium alloy plant in Jebel Ali and an international trading office in Toronto and Shanghai, they strive to achieve a stronger presence in the Middle East with their sight set on the global market.

Saving the environment at work

So you run a small business with a medium-sized office and have local clients in Dubai, whom you deal with on a daily basis. How could you save the environment at work? Well, quite frankly, there is a lot that can be done and what is even better, is that these actions would help you save some money as well.

To make it easier we could split up the tasks needed to be accomplished, into the objects that we are going to deal with:

Paper: Tonnes of paper are wasted worldwide and in Dubai on a daily basis, and this is only to do with office documentation. From resumes to forms, it is not only smart, but also cost-effective to go paperless. What’s more is that it will save more storage space helping you reduce the number of files, records and documents. Always keep only what is necessary and shred the rest. Shredding is a safe and secure way to dispose office documents and most shredding companies will pass on the bales to paper mills—saving trees.

Water: Water usage especially in a city like Dubai is an important concern since it is a precious commodity. Check whether all the faucets and pipes of the toilets are secure and functional; reducing water wastage. One can always sell the old parts as brass scrap or copper scrap rather than just dumping them at a landfill.

Electricity: It is always smart to run an office without too many cabins, too many cabins mean too much wiring and that is only the beginning of your maintenance expenses. Moreover cabins add to power bills and will require split air-conditioning when compared to a studio space which is open and utilizes less lighting and cooling. Teach employees about the importance of switching equipment off when not in use—this will make a difference.

Office Equipment: Office equipment like old printers, computers that are not in use should be discarded at a recycling plant where most of them can be reused. Older equipment is not only more expensive to maintain, but will also decrease efficiency when it comes to electricity. Again, it’s wise to get them exchanged with the dealer who you are buying new equipment from rather than disposing them off in trash. At least they will end up in scrap yards in Dubai where scrap metal recyclers will make use of them.