Sharjah Municipality said it is in the final stages of negotiations for a second construction and demolition waste facility. The new unit will have a capacity to recycle 4,000 metric tonnes of waste per day and will be commissioned by the first quarter of 2010. The project will cost the Municipality about Dh20 million.
Humaid Abdullah Al Mualla, Project Engineer at Sharjah Municipality, yesterday told Emirates Business that the negotiations are on with several companies.
"We are in the final stages of selecting a company. The new facility will more than double our recycling facility. We started with a capacity of 1,500 tonnes per day and have expanded. The waste generated in Sharjah is less than 10 per cent of the total waste generated in Dubai," said Al Mualla.
"Last year in Sharjah, 2.5 milion tonnes of waste was generated of which 1.6 million was construction and demolition waste.
"So if we can effectively handle the waste generated from construction sites, it is almost 66 per cent of the job done," he added.
Sharjah Municipality's investments towards recycling waste also involve the construction of several internal roads, brick manufacturing and bedding layer for pipes. It was the first emirate in the UAE to install a construction and demolition waste management facility in 2007.
The Dh40m waste management factory located in Saja is developed and run by Emirates Environmental Technology Company under supervision of Bee'ah, a limited liability joint stock company, partly owned by Sharjah Municipality.
The profit margins from recycling have been increasing, said Al Mualla.
"Just the land value consumed by storage in the landfills costs us about Dh10 to 15 per cubic metre. So when we recycle, we automatically save on this amount. Apart from this, we are currently earning net profit of Dh5 to Dh8 per tonne of recycled waste," he said.
Dubai has two privately-managed facilities – Dulsco and Al Rostamani's Emirates Recycling, which operate under the guidance of Dubai Municipality.
The UAE commercial hub Dubai produces more than 30,000 tonnes of construction waste every day.
However, according to sources Dubai Municipality is also planning to set up its own waste management facility and has already entered into negotiations with several leading companies.
Also Dubai Municipality, in association with an international consultant, is presently in the final stages of finalising the green building regulations, which will encourage the use of recyclable materials for the construction industry.
The Emirates Recycling plant, built at a cost of more than Dh65m, is located in the Al Lusaily area on the Al Ain-Jebel Ali road and has a capacity to recycle more than eight million tonnes of construction waste material annually. The facility is mostly used to separate and recycle into aggregates.
Abu Dhabi is also building a waste management facility with a capacity to recycle 16,000 tonnes of waste every day. It recently signed up a 15-year construction waste management contract with Thiess Services for $475m (Dh1.7 billion). Under the contract, Thiess will design and construct a recycling facility to manage construction and demolition wastes in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The construction is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2010.
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