InFocus | Go Green
Wiping out waste
The UAE aims to reduce its carbon footprint and be the best example of sustainable disposal
- By Rachel Latham | Gulf News Report
- Published: 00:00 January 18, 2010
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
- Sharjah's compost plant processes waste from gardens and parks that is reused as manure.
However you want to put it, while humans can be very productive, they are also wasteful; they generate waste. Of course, to some extent that's inevitable. Moreover, on the plus side, we are working on mitigation. Indeed, environmental damage limitation is not only an industry these days, it's an international cause, as the recent Copenhagen summit conspicuously portrayed.
Without going into carbon emissions, climate change and saving the planet, there is plenty to say about dealing with the unwanted by-products of mundane consumer and producer activity.
Whether it's from domestic, industrial or agricultural sources, a huge variety of waste — ranging from everyday household rubbishto highly toxic radioactive substances — has to be treated as a generic administrative and business requirement. At its most basic that challenge is twofold: firstly, separating the waste that has no alternative use from that which can be cost-effectively recycled, and, secondly, finding an environmentally friendly method of disposing of that waste for which there is no further use.
The UAE's challenges
Waste management is truly a global issue. But, that said, the UAE is facing its own particular challenges, on account of the incredible scale and pace of urbanisation in recent years.
According to The Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi, the UAE has one of the highest per capita productions of waste in the world. A recent report commissioned by the Centre for Waste Management (CWM) estimated that on average every resident in Abu Dhabi, for instance, generates about 4.2 kilos of rubbishper day. This is much higher than the Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development (OECD) countries' averageof 1.54 kilos per inhabitant per day.
That's just domestic waste. Of the UAE's total waste, it's not difficult to imagine that construction debris is a major concern. According to the Dubai Statistics Centre, waste from the building industry amounted to 23.2 million tonnes in 2008. That is more than double the figure in 2006, and accounted for 84 per cent of total waste, as against 74 per cent in 2006.
Adverse environmental impacts
With most of the UAE's waste ending up in landfills, some of which are outdated, the scope for adverse environmental impacts is considerable.
So what's to be done? A widely used concept adopted by many countries is the Integrated Waste Management Hierarchy. The concept >refers to the three Rs of ‘reduce, rescue and recycle', classifying strategies according to their desirability in terms of waste minimisation.
While the theory may seem straightforward, implementation is harder. Vivek Gautam, Sr. Research Analyst, Environmental and Building Technologies Practice, South Asia and Middle East, Frost & Sullivan, says that if you "benchmark existing waste management practices in the UAE against those enumerated in Integrated Waste Management Hierarchy, we have a long way to go". In a report entitled Solid Waste Management in GCC: Challenges and Opportunities, Frost & Sullivan highlights the fact that landfill, the least preferred option in the hierarchy, remains the most widely practised method in the region, and that significant investment, policy action, and education are required to bring about positive change.
Immense task
This is not to say that progress has not been made. Indeed the UAE is considered to be ahead of its neighbours in the sector. But the task is immense in terms of the scale of the problem, and the range of waste that needs to be handled.
The work of the authorities has increasingly been carried out in co-operation with private companies, a trend that Gautam of Frost & Sullivan believes "brings international best practices and leverages their experience of working in other markets". These initiatives cover the whole gamut of waste management activities, across the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal and monitoring of waste materials, in many cases incorporating state-of-the-art technology.
Recycling schemes
In a country where the population has seen explosive growth — currently in the region of 6 million, both Emiratis and expatriates, having risen from 4.3 million only four years ago — educating people in the need to manage waste is considered an urgent priority. Both authorities and local communities are introducing recycling schemes aimed at minimising waste and making recycling a daily habit. Such schemes, for example, involve the use of two bins for each household — a green bin for recyclables and a black bin for waste.
Also on the domestic front, the Centre for Waste Management has introduced an innovative electro-hydraulic underground waste system. This advanced underground collection process aims to replace existing bins, with the advantages of eliminating odours, scavengers, and litter around collection points.
Tadweer, a leading private company in the field of waste and environmental services in the UAE, in strategic partnership with Dubai Municipality receives 4,000 tonnes of waste for recycling daily. Whilst involved in many aspects of the sector, one project announced last year will involve the transformation of plastics such as polyethylene into pellets to be used as secondary material for making newer plastic products, a measure that will reduce the adverse impact of non-biodegradable waste on the environment.
Construction debris
In respect of industry, the construction sector provides the greatest challenge in terms of scale. In 2007 Sharjah was the first emirate to set up a plant for recycling construction waste. Developed and run by Emirates Environmental Technology Company, a joint venture between Sharjah Municipality and an Austrian company, the factory receives 2,000 tonnes of construction and demolition materials daily and converts it into high-quality reusable raw building materials.
A similar project is under way in Abu Dhabi, where Thiess Services Middle East, a joint venture between the Australian company Thiess Services and Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises in Dubai, was awarded a contract last year to build and operate a demolition waste facility. Such projects will go some way to alleviating the pressure on landfill sites.
A field that has its own particular requirements is the medical sector. Here Dubai has taken the lead by setting up last year the Middle East's largest medical waste treatment plant. Implemented by Dubai Municipality and Zenath Group, the recycling and waste management arm of ETA Star Group and located at Dubai Municipality's waste treatment complex at Jebel Ali, the Dh24 million-incinerator has a total treatment capacity of 19.2 tonnes of medical waste daily.
These are just a few of the projects under way across the emirates.
Zero-waste lifestyle
So what of the future?
Abu Dhabi's pioneering project to build a zero-carbon and zero-waste city, Masdar City, provides a rather futuristic feel to the topic. One of the many aims of Masdar is to radically diminish the landfill area needed, by developing systems and encouraging lifestyles that will ultimately eliminate the concept of waste.
It will provide an environment that enables a zero-waste lifestyle through the reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery of waste materials. Ninety-eight per cent of the city's waste will be diverted from landfills by 2020, with the ultimate goal of zero waste to landfills. That projectis under way and is being built in six phasesover the next seven years.
Much has been done, but significant tests of commitment remain. According to Frost & Sullivan, for a successful recycling programme in the UAE, the collection, transportation and sorting infrastructure are areas that need to be strengthened, and recycling facilities expanded particularly for construction waste.
Another factor holding back the recycling sector has been the lack of demand for recycled products. One of the options therefore could be that government might make it mandatory for new projects to meet a certain percentage of their construction material requirementsfrom recycled products. Also, planning agencies could work towards quality certification of recycled products, enhancing product acceptability in the marketplace.
On the principle that necessity breeds invention, the opportunity to be environmentally attuned is becoming more of an imperative,one itself not to be wasted.
