SAUDI ARABIA & ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 lays out a plan targeting 100% of municipal solid waste, 60% of construction/demolition waste and 85% of industrial/hazardous waste to be diverted from landfill. Saudi Arabia is aiming for a circular economy based on giving back nutrients to the earth and looping back recovered recyclables to the industry.* Saudi Arabia expects a USD 10bn contribution from local GDP, and a USD 1.75bn contribution from Foreign Direct Investment, intending to create 23,000 direct jobs while reducing CO2 emissions by 13m ton.

CS Saudi Arabia met with the key players in the EnviroTech industry – Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA), Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), National Recycling Center (NRC), and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA).

Copper and Aluminum Recycling: About 200,000 tons of scrap metal are sold to India, S. Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand. The Saudi Arabian Government may be looking at banning scrap metal exports in order to encourage local recycling.

Hazardous Waste: Saudi Arabia houses large petrochemical and oil companies (Aramco, Sabic) but cannot cover demand for safe disposal of waste.  SIRC acquired Global Environmental Management Services (GEMS) in order to meet demand, but local capacity to treat hazardous petrochemical waste is still only at 20% of the need. U.S. companies are usually preferred for hazardous waste treatment, even to the extent of shipping waste to the United States to be treated before shipping back to the Kingdom.

Medical Waste: Medical waste is only burned. There is no local expertise in medical waste management.

Educational Campaign: There is a need to advertise and educate the Saudi public on the benefits of recycling. The government, for the first time, has budgeted money to meet the future needs of implementing a national recycling plan, but is desperate for private company expertise to help re-structure local recycling processes and grassroots awareness.