Accumulation of waste is a challenging issue for many countries all over the world. The problem is particularly daunting in rapidly developing economies. Economic growth and increasing population inevitably result in greater amounts of material waste. Adverse effects of waste accumulation on environment and economy have been observed by many researchers (Wilson 2006, Nemerow 2009). For this reason, governments, corporations, and communities in different countries have been concerned to reduce their waste (Marshall & Farahbakhsh 2013). Waste reduction is an especially relevant challenge for the United Arab Emirates, where the amount of waste grows significantly every year. There are different strategies and approaches to waste reduction. They apply to every stage of waste production and waste management. These strategies and approaches take into consideration the cultural and behavioral aspects of societies, as well as policies, legislation, infrastructure and technology. In order to approach the complex task of waste reduction in the UAE, it is important to describe and understand the current waste situation (identify the problem), to define its reasons (identify causes), and finally propose recommendations based on the experience of successful waste reduction from UAE as well as from other countries. Abundance of Waste in the UAE Comparing to 6.6 million tons of waste generated by the UAE in 2010, the expected amount in 2017 is 8.4 million tons (Al Bustani 2014), which is a 27-percent increase. In Abu Dhabi in 2013, the average of waste production per person was between 1.8 kg and 2.4 kg (4 lb and 5.3 lb) a day, which is almost twice as much as in the United Kingdom (Todorova 201). In Dubai, this average was 2.03 kg (4.48 lb) of waste per person per day in 2015 (Badam 2016). What is meant by ‘waste’ in this statistics is what actually goes to the landfill. The situation is rather alerting in virtually every area of waste production. For example, in 2013, 750 million plastic bottles were thrown in the trash, which ranks third highest among all countries, while only 10-12 percent was recycled (Berengueres et al. 2013). Another example is food. It constitutes 30-55 percent of all waste across the UAE. Each Ramadan, 30 days of fasting every year, about 1,850 tons of food are disposed of in Dubai, which is almost 1 kg of food thrown in the trash by an average resident (Al Bustani 2014). Overall, the waste management data in the UAE show that the amount of waste is increasingly problematic, which thus increases the significance of waste reduction. Causes Identification of causes of waste abundance is the first step in the waste management strategic planning. Generally defined, the reason of growing amounts of waste in the UAE is the rapid economic development and the population inflow. The number of people grows, and they can afford to buy more goods, which naturally increases the amount of waste they produce. It leads to a larger demand for waste management services. The brand and marketing director of one of the waste management companies operating in the UAE, Patrick Lloyd-Bradley, says, “Don’t think that for a business like us that the more waste there is, the better we are” (Al Bustani 2014). Lloyd-Bradley explains that his company is rather interested in putting the waste back into the sy