REGIONAL REPORT/ SAUDI ARABIA
The municipal waste landfill in Riyadh received more than 3.5 million tonnes of different kinds of waste during the first six months this year. Disposed commercial and domestic waste reached 1.4 million tonnes while other waste including construction debris reached 2.1 million tonnes. According to sources at Riyadh municipality, the landfill is allowed to receive only solid waste while medical, industrial and hazardous waste is sent away. So what happens to the medical, industrial and construction waste? It’s obvious that Riyadh has facilities that are taking in these three categories of waste to be processed and converted into recycled products.
Recycling as an industry is gaining ground for two reasons: economic and environmental. It is one of the best waste management methods that reduces the need for landfilling and incineration and turns materials that would otherwise remain as waste into valuable resources. Moreover, it offers commercial gains as the world turns more and more to using recycled plastic, and paper in the packaging of consumer goods.
While recycling of all types of waste has grown in general, recycling of specific materials like paper, PET plastic, aluminum soft drink cans, steel packaging and major appliances is more on the rise. Construction and demolition waste recycling is also another area of growth.
While the recycling industry across Europe is a mature one, the Middle East in comparison can be said to be in a nascent stage. However, this bodes well for entrepreneurs who wish to enter into the region’s recycling industry and also for suppliers of waste management technologies, waste management service providers and waste management equipment suppliers.
According to the World Bank estimates, tens of billions of dollars will be invested in the waste management and environmental sectors in the Middle East over the next 10 years. Amid this mounting concern for the environment, the market for waste management technologies and products in Saudi Arabia is growing rapidly.
Prioritizing waste management
The 2nd International Recycling and Waste Management exhibition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia which was held from 1-4 November 2009 at the Riyadh International Exhibition Center was an eye-opener to the widespread recycling business present in Riyadh. It also served as an indicator of the potential for more growth in one of the busiest cities of the giant kingdom.
Riyadh is prioritizing industrial development through the development of economic and industrial cities like the King Abdullah Economic City, a move that will encourage and strengthen investor interest in the other cities. Ever since the King Abdullah Economic City was launched near Jeddah in December 2005, Riyadh has revealed the mammoth scale of its ambitions by unveiling a series of mega-city projects that include five other economic cities and several huge industrial clusters such as the $40bn Sudair Industrial City in the north of Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia has set its sights on becoming one of the 10 best countries in the world in which to do business by next year. The kingdom has worked hard to climb up the World Bank’s Doing Business league, rising 17 places to 16th since 2007.
It is a given fact that a rise in GDP registers a rise in consumer spending which gives rise to more waste. It is the same with industrialization and urban growth which increases levels of pollution and waste. Saudi Arabia’s annual garbage production has reached 12 million tonnes, with each citizen producing an average of 1.4 kilograms of waste per day, making the kingdom look for more effective and advanced recycling and waste management solutions.
Clean Middle East was able to understand and analyze Riyadh’s waste management and recycling industry. The presence of many big waste management service providers for the collection and transportation of municipal, such as Abdullah Al-Khodary Sons Co., Al Fahhad and Sons Co., Al Yamama Group of also voiced their satisfaction of doing good business in the kingdom.
Paper and plastic recycling
Companies like Gulf Waste Processing and Recycling Company (GWPR), Refal Environmental Services Limited, Arab Paper Manufacturing Co., Saudi Recycling Co., all of which are large companies involved in producing recycled paper products from paper waste, show a good foothold of the paper recycling industry in the industrial cities of Dammam and Riyadh
Refal Environmental Services Limited, a part of the conglomerate Obeikan Investment Group, collects waste paper which is then sent onwards to sister company Obeikan Paper Industries (OBI) to be recycled in order to produce duplex board of Companies, and Alwan Company, indicated the massive amount of municipal solid waste that is being generated in Riyadh alone.
Al Fahhad and Sons Company undertakes city cleaning and waste disposal for some parts of Riyadh and is a major contractor in cities like Yanbu, Hail, Gazan, Qassim, etc.
Alwan Company undertakes mechanical and manual sweeping of streets, roundabouts and open spaces and has cleaning projects in the northern and southern areas of Jeddah, the southern sector of the Jazan region and the Khashm Al Aan Residential City. It is also involved in waste collection and disposal.
Established in 1955, Al-Khodary stands out as a company involved in all aspects of waste management, right from the collection, hauling and disposal of household, municipal solid and hazardous waste to sorting, recycling and landfilling of rejected waste. The company collects and disposes waste for the Riyadh and Dammam municipalities and the Municipality of Eastern Province. At present, Al-Khodary is involved in the third phase of the Dammam Landfill rehabilitation.
A number of recycling companies present in Riyadh shows that recycling is big business in Riyadh. Clean Middle East was able to learn that there were a lot of inquiries from entrepreneurs regarding paper and plastic recycling. On the other hand, companies involved in the trading of recycled paper and plastic were satisfied with the returns from their businesses. Companies involved in the trading of metal scrap, paper and plastic waste also voiced their satisfaction of doing good business in the kingdom.
Showing signs of self-sufficiency
Unlike other GCC countries where waste management equipment is mostly imported, the waste management and recycling industry of Saudi Arabia is mature enough to have turned into a manufacturer’s market for such products. Riyadh-based Refuse Equipment Manufacturing(REM) started its operations in 1983 and today manufactures garbage compactors, container dumping machines, garbage dumpers for narrow areas, large dumpers, container and stationary compactors used for transfer stations, vacuum and jetting tanks, aerial lifts, hook lifts, garbage transfer stations, road sweepers, etc.
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