Saudi Arabia: Integrated Waste Management and Recycling Plan for Riyadh
It is planned to recycle 81 percent of municipal solid waste and 47 percent of construction and demolition waste by 2035.
The initiative, which was launched in July this year, aims to improve the collection and recycling of the waste in the city of Riyadh as part of Saudi Vision 2030 goals to preserve and protect the environment and achieve environmental sustainability by improving recycling rates, the information said. The National Waste Management Center, the Riyadh Municipality and the Saudi Investment Recycling Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) to start integrated waste management and waste recycling activities in Riyadh. The agreement was signed by Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadley, the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and Chairman of the board of directors of the National Waste Management Center; Tariq bin Abdul Aziz Al Faris, Mayor of Riyadh region, and Jeroen Vincent, Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC).
Under the MoU, the three parties will jointly work on the execution of the overall waste management strategy for Riyadh to achieve a set of strategic objectives for recycling by 2035. This notably includes the recycling of 81 percent of the 3.4 million tons of annually produced municipal solid waste and 47 percent of the approximately five million tons of construction and demolition waste per year. The strategy further aims at the removal and recycling of an estimated 20 million tons of construction and demolition waste that is currently lying in vacant plots and on roadsides around the capital. As part of an integrated waste management system, the Saudi Investment Recycling Company will build state-of-the-art recycling facilities to recycle all types of waste. This includes the recycling of municipal waste into recyclables such as fertilizer, paper, plastics and metals.
The first initiative within the framework agreement will be the recycling of construction and demolition waste into building materials for road construction and housing projects followed by the construction of a sorting facility for municipal waste, in conjunction with the Mayor of Riyadh region project “City without bins”, which aims at the dual source-sorting of household waste in Riyadh.
The Mayor of Riyadh region recently launched an experiment to replace single bins in some residential neighborhoods with two bins for each house. The Mayor of Riyadh region designated green bins for materials such as plastics, paper, cardboard, glass and metal cans, while the black bins were for organic waste, residues, and components of food.
(GR 32019, Page 19, Photo: MPR PR)
