Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi has been recycling millions of tonnes of solid waste and reusing this in infrastructure projects.
About 1.72 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste was recycled in 2013 and a major share of its recycled aggregate has been reused in infrastructure projects, especially for constructing base layer of roads.
A total of 4,500 tonnes of plastic waste was also recycled in 2013, an official spokesperson of Tadweer, the Centre of Waste Management – Abu Dhabi, told Gulf News. Tadweer is an Abu Dhabi Government organisation responsible for waste management in the emirate.
Tadweer’s main services include collection, transportation, sorting, treatment and safe disposal of waste.
Since the establishment of the centre in 2008, Abu Dhabi has intensified its efforts to reuse and recycle wastes, converting them into useful products that can be used in daily life.
The centre has dedicated facilities and plants to segregate and treat all types of recyclable wastes such as motor oil, construction and demolition (C&D) waste and tyres.
Fifty-three per cent of the total amount of tyres discarded in 2013 has been recycled. Most of them were reused to produce environment-friendly rubber granules for building flooring in parks, children’s playgrounds and rubber flooring in barns. However, the exact number of tyres discarded and recycled was not available.
A 25 per cent increase in the production of recyclable materials was recorded this year until October in Abu Dhabi region and the Western Region of the emirate. However, their total volume and value were not available.
Tadweer also recycles domestic waste. Thirty-nine per cent of the municipal waste generated by residents in Abu Dhabi is food waste.
The recycling process starts with the segregation of waste at source. Residents are provided with two different types of bins — green bins for recyclable waste and black ones for organic waste.
These bins use hydraulic technology that reduces the need for manual labour, improving the process of solid waste collection and transportation based on the latest international standards in waste management. These containers have incorporated highest quality and technical specifications such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, computer systems and weighing scales. This helps Tadweer to remotely monitor all geographical and technical details of each bin, and build a comprehensive database on waste source, quantity, quality, and waste generation rate in each household.
To ensure the efficiency of its waste management services, Tadweer has divided the geographical area of its work into three major regions — Abu Dhabi City including the adjacent islands, Al Ain City and the Western Region. These regions are further divided into seven key sectors to facilitate the work of companies contracted by Tadweer to collect and transport waste. Each sector has been assigned a specialised company for providing waste management services.
