UAE | Environment

Construction waste 'needs attention'

A total of 30,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste is created every day in Dubai and more solutions other than landfills are desperately needed to deal with the waste, Dubai Municipality revealed on Sunday.

  • By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:54 June 22, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: A total of 30,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste is created every day in Dubai and more solutions other than landfills are desperately needed to deal with the waste, Dubai Municipality revealed on Sunday.

When general and horticultural waste are added to the total it means Dubai creates 40,000 tonnes of waste daily.

How to deal with this, caused by the "vast development taking place in Dubai", will be addressed at the next Middle East Waste Summit, said Abdullah Rafea, assistant general director, Health and Environmental Services Sector at Dubai Municipality.

Currently, GCC countries rank in the top 10 of world waste producers with 120 million tonnes of waste per year, and figures are expected to reach 350,000 million tonnes by 2014.

"These figures show the need for the world to exploit and make use of the latest technologies in the field of waste management," said Rafea.

The Middle East Waste Summit will cover many sectors, including waste transfer, collection and transportation, landfill and composting equipment, volume reduction and material handling, recycling and processing.

Recycling is an important waste management option, said Rafea at a conference yesterday announcing the summit. "Recycling can make good environmental and economic sense, given the right conditions," he said.

"But there are other options like incineration that will be studied to find the best solutions suitable for our country. This is when we will need to look for the most experienced and competent companies in the field," he added.

Held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, the Middle East Waste Summit 2009 (MEWS) will be held from March 17 to 19 at Dubai Airport Expo Centre.

Organised by Turret Middle East, Mews09 is set to be the largest and most comprehensive Waste Management and Recycling event in the Middle East, with over 6,000 expected attendees.

Richard Hease, Chairman, Turret Middle East, pointed out some concerns in Dubai. "When was the last time you saw a clear blue sky in Dubai? You look at pictures of Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Mumbai and it makes you wonder how those cities let those pollution clouds happen. They just forgot the importance of the quality of life. Currently, GCC countries are ranked among the top 10 world waste producers. We cannot let that happen here," he said.

The summit will also incorporate a conference for knowledge exchange and an exhibition which will group together 200 international companies to provide waste management solutions.

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