Recycling in the Middle East - Case Study Example

Name Course Instructor Date Table of Contents Abstract 1 Introduction 2 Result 2 Discussion 4 Recycling of plastics 4 Recycling of tires 5 Other recyclable wastes 6 Challenge facing recycling 7 Recommendation 7 Conclusion 7 Reference list 8 Abstract The Arab world is currently dealing with the disaster of mismanaged waste. The region is experiencing increasingly high population growth rates. There is also significant economic growth leading to high income per capita. Households are therefore exposed to high purchasing powers and hence heavy expenditure. The masses in the Middle East countries are continuously dumping and landfilling wastes without any significant awareness of what they are doing to their surroundings. One of the most effective means of dealing with waste is recycling. This paper examines the current waste statistics in the region, the present recyclable products, how they can be recycled and the challenges facing recycling. The recyclable products presented in this paper are only justification to the possibility of recycling in the Middle East but not a representation of all recyclable products in the region’s waste. Introduction The Middle East is rapidly conforming to economic expansions and urbanization alongside galloping population growth rates. These factors have led to massive consumtion rates which in turn have contributed largely to every kind of waste. In global ranking of per capita solid waste generation, Middle East countries, notably Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are top ten. Middle East countries generate more that 150 million tons of urban waste annually. It is worth noting that the Middle East is a significant energy resource generator for global markets (Arouri et.al, p346). As such, the region has recorded some of the leading per capita carbon footprints globally. The waste management sectors in the region have responded appropriately to the waste menace in the recent past, in an attempt to fight global warming. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE have launched remarkable investments into their waste management sectors in response to the disastrous waste conditions. This paper begins with outlining the waste situation in major countries of the Middle East. The paper further seeks to answer the following questions: Are there recyclable waste products in Middle East? How can some of the products be recycled? What is the main challenge facing recycling in the Middle East? Result In Saudi Arabia, the hardest hit city by waste is Jeddah. The city, alongside being the second largest Saudi Arabian city, it is a regional commercial giant. Management of waste in Jeddah has become a major issue, given the large population of more than 3.5 million people. Solid waste in the city amounts to 5.00 tons daily. From residential and commercial places, solid waste in Jeddah is dumped at the Buramain landfill, which receives more than 1.5 million tons of solid waste on an annual basis. The solid waste takes about 30-40 years to be fully degraded. Buramain Lake has also acted as Jeddah’s sewage water collection site for more than 10 years. The lake, 2.88 square kilometers holds about 10 million cubic meters of wastewater. Raw sewage from the lake has leaked into some aquifers, contaminating drinking water in wells (Alfaraj et.al, p.77). It was built to accommodate sewage wastewater awaiting the construction of a comprehensive drainage system in the city, which was delayed by funding problems. The lake receives more than 50, 000 cubic meters of wastewater daily. The rest of the water is mostly dumped into the red sea, with only a small portion being treated. Iraq is one of the most populated countries in the Arab world with about 32 million people. Sectarian conflicts, increasing per capita incomes, high population growth rates and economic progress has resulted to the current waste condition in the country. The country generates approximately 31,000 tons of waste daily; from a daily 1.4 kg per capita generation of waste. Among these, Baghdad accumulates more than 1.5 million tons annually (Hoornwerg et.al, p.1). The waste handling facilities have been subjected to ling term mismanagement, leading to immense damaging. The result of waste mismanagement is dumping on unregulated landfills. The Iraqi landfills have extended their waste menace to surface and groundwater, frequent fires with greenhouse gas emissions among other degradations. In UAE, each person produces a range of 1.76 and 2.3 kg of solid waste daily. The country generates about 4.982 tons of solid waste annually (Huang et.al, p.294). Among these, Abu Dhabi generates 6935 tons, Al Ain 4118 tons while the western region generates 2349 tons. Qatar generates 2.5 million tons of waste annually, Bahrain 1.5 million and Kuwait 2 million. These three countries accumulate such large masses of waste due to the high living standards and corresponding lack of awareness regarding sustainable livelihoods. Discussion Recycling of plastics The Middle East contributes to about 8% of the global plastic production. Plastics make up 10% of the solid waste in the region. In the beaches of Middle East, plastic is the most found waste, which is a threat to marine life. As such, it is necessary to remove this non-biodegradable waste from the landfills. Recycling plastic is an effective method of sustainably disposing it. However, plastic recycling is more challenging in comparison to other waste such as glass, paper and aluminum. This is especially because most plastics contain polymers of more than one kind, with each polymer having different properties and melting points. Commonly recyclable plastics include Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polystyrene (PS), Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) (Siddiqui, p.731). The steps in plastic recycling are collecting, sorting, chipping, washing and pelletization. PET and HDPE are the most recyclable plastics. On the other hand, recycling of PVC s is limited by the polymer’s high concentration of chlorine gas which is a biohazard. There are also many additives to the polymer, which makes extraction of PVC from the larger plastic challenging and polluting (Gondal & Siddiqui, p.1993). The Middle East is still in its early stages of plastic recycling. However, there is a great opportunity to recycle plastic products, based on the heavy composition of plastic in the region’s solid waste. Countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE are doing all it takes to establish plastic recycling centers as part of the larger waste management efforts. Recycling of tires The Middle East discards tens of millions tires annually. This is done by short-term approaches of landfilling, illegal dumping and stockpiling. Tires have a very long life while being non-biodegradable. Pile tires harbor vermin, snakes and mosquitoes which are dangerous for human health. Additionally, accidental fires have unpleasant effects on the environment; such as the 2012 fire incident in Jahra dumpsite which burnt down about 5 million tires. Tires are recyclable using three major techniques; pyrolysis, cryogenic grinding and ambient mechanical grinding. In ambient grinding, scrap tires are grinded at ambient temperature ( Presti, p.867). Chippers and shredders are involved for fragmenting the tires. Granulators are then used to sort tires fragments from steel and fiber, while breaking them further to smaller pieces. Steel and fiber are further sorted out to leave rubber which is further refined to give fine rubber. Cryogenic grinding involves grinding under low temperatures using commercial refrigerants or liquid nitrogen. The process uses previously granulated rubber chips which are cooled under such low temperatures to make them brittle such that they are easily broken or crushed. The whole process involves chipping, cooling, sorting and grinding (Feraldi et.al p.618). Pyrolysis involves thermal decomposition of scrap tires, aerobically or anaerobically. In the first phase, aerobic thermal decomposition is applied to break the scrap tire into constituent char, synthetic gas and tire-derived fuel (TDF) (Undri et.al p.397). The TDF is then decomposed further under temperatures higher than 5000 degrees Celsius for cracking. The Middle East should invest in this kind of recycling to remove this waste from the landfills. The space occupied by the recyclable tires can be used for other commercial or recreational activities. Recycling tires also has the benefit of environment friendliness and reduced exposure of humans to disease, pests and vermin. Other recyclable wastes Recycling waste such as paper, aluminum and glass can be useful in waste management for the Middle East. Other organic products, though highly biodegradable, can be used to recover energy. Kitchen waste can especially be converted to biogas which is usable for cooking and heating purposes. In fact, the globe is conforming to recovery as an additional R to the traditional Reuse Reduce Recycle. Challenge facing recycling The major challenge in the Middle East with respect to waste is because companies are not willing to be socially responsible. It is possible for a company to follow up its product until it is recycled, recovered or disposed responsibly. In other regions, a company such as Bridgestone Tire Company ensures that all its tires are recycled upon wear or tear by actively committing to such recycling (Uruburu et.al, p.680). If companies in Middle East adopt such policies for recycling their products, then the problem of waste will be reduced to lesser levels. Recommendation The governments in the region need to create public awareness for people to realize the importance of recycling (Aljaradin, p.509). Campaigns should be launched to prompt private investors into taking up the task of making profits from the waste lying idle. The main problem is that people are consuming more due to increased income but they are not aware of what they are doing to their surroundings. It is therefore important to launch civic education to train people on the benefits of proper disposal of waste. The present investment in the waste management sectors by governments such as UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia should be embraced by other countries in the region. Conclusion The paper has sufficiently answered all the research questions. Furthermore, unless the necessary measures are taken, the waste menace in the Middle East will get out of hand. Only the respective governments can take the initiative to curb the menace. The region is an economic giant that can make the necessary reforms in a short period. Governments such as Saudi Arabia should build better sewerage and drainage systems in cities such as Jeddah. With the globe conforming to green technological advances, the Middle East should direct its waste management sector into this mainstream. This technology for recycling and conversion of waste should be applied, not only on large scale basis, but also on small scale by households in initiatives such as conversion of organic waste to biogas and organic fertilizers both for domestic consumption and market purposes. Reference list Al-Farraj, S., et al. "The impact of sewage pollution on polychaetes of Al Khumrah, South of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia." Research Journal of Environmental Sciences 6.2 (2012): 77. Aljaradin, Mohammad, Kenneth M. Persson, and Hossam I. Al-Itawi. "Public awareness and willingness for recycle in Jordan." International Journal of Academic Research 3.1 (part II) (2012): 508-510. Arouri, Mohamed El Hedi, et al. "Energy consumption, economic growth and CO 2 emissions in Middle East and North African countries." Energy Policy 45 (2012): 342-349. Feraldi, Rebe, et al. "Comparative LCA of treatment options for US scrap tires: material recycling and tire-derived fuel combustion." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 18.3 (2013): 613-625. Gondal, Mohammed A., and Mohammad N. Siddiqui. "Identification of different kinds of plastics using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for waste management." Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A 42.13 (2012): 1989-1997. Hoornweg, Daniel, and Perinaz Bhada-Tata. "What a waste: a global review of solid waste management." (2012). Huang, Yue, Bachar Hakim, and Susanna Zammataro. "Measuring the carbon footprint of road construction using CHANGER." International Journal of Pavement Engineering 14.6 (2013): 590-600. Presti, Davide Lo. "Recycled tyre rubber modified bitumens for road asphalt mixtures: a literature review." Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013): 863-881. Siddiqui, Mohammad Nahid. "Conversion of hazardous plastic wastes into useful chemical products." Journal of hazardous materials 167.1 (2013): 728-735. Undri, Andrea, et al. "Carbon from microwave assisted pyrolysis of waste tires." Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 104 (2013): 396-404. Uruburu, Ángel, et al. "The new challenges of end-of-life tyres management systems: A Spanish case study." Waste management 33.3 (2013): 679-688. Read More

From residential and commercial places, solid waste in Jeddah is dumped at the Buramain landfill, which receives more than 1.5 million tons of solid waste on an annual basis. The solid waste takes about 30-40 years to be fully degraded. Buramain Lake has also acted as Jeddah’s sewage water collection site for more than 10 years. The lake, 2.88 square kilometers holds about 10 million cubic meters of wastewater. Raw sewage from the lake has leaked into some aquifers, contaminating drinking water in wells (Alfaraj et.al, p.77).

It was built to accommodate sewage wastewater awaiting the construction of a comprehensive drainage system in the city, which was delayed by funding problems. The lake receives more than 50, 000 cubic meters of wastewater daily. The rest of the water is mostly dumped into the red sea, with only a small portion being treated. Iraq is one of the most populated countries in the Arab world with about 32 million people. Sectarian conflicts, increasing per capita incomes, high population growth rates and economic progress has resulted to the current waste condition in the country.

The country generates approximately 31,000 tons of waste daily; from a daily 1.4 kg per capita generation of waste. Among these, Baghdad accumulates more than 1.5 million tons annually (Hoornwerg et.al, p.1). The waste handling facilities have been subjected to ling term mismanagement, leading to immense damaging. The result of waste mismanagement is dumping on unregulated landfills. The Iraqi landfills have extended their waste menace to surface and groundwater, frequent fires with greenhouse gas emissions among other degradations.

In UAE, each person produces a range of 1.76 and 2.3 kg of solid waste daily. The country generates about 4.982 tons of solid waste annually (Huang et.al, p.294). Among these, Abu Dhabi generates 6935 tons, Al Ain 4118 tons while the western region generates 2349 tons. Qatar generates 2.5 million tons of waste annually, Bahrain 1.5 million and Kuwait 2 million. These three countries accumulate such large masses of waste due to the high living standards and corresponding lack of awareness regarding sustainable livelihoods.

Discussion Recycling of plastics The Middle East contributes to about 8% of the global plastic production. Plastics make up 10% of the solid waste in the region. In the beaches of Middle East, plastic is the most found waste, which is a threat to marine life. As such, it is necessary to remove this non-biodegradable waste from the landfills. Recycling plastic is an effective method of sustainably disposing it. However, plastic recycling is more challenging in comparison to other waste such as glass, paper and aluminum.

This is especially because most plastics contain polymers of more than one kind, with each polymer having different properties and melting points. Commonly recyclable plastics include Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polystyrene (PS), Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) (Siddiqui, p.731). The steps in plastic recycling are collecting, sorting, chipping, washing and pelletization. PET and HDPE are the most recyclable plastics.

On the other hand, recycling of PVC s is limited by the polymer’s high concentration of chlorine gas which is a biohazard. There are also many additives to the polymer, which makes extraction of PVC from the larger plastic challenging and polluting (Gondal & Siddiqui, p.1993). The Middle East is still in its early stages of plastic recycling. However, there is a great opportunity to recycle plastic products, based on the heavy composition of plastic in the region’s solid waste. Countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE are doing all it takes to establish plastic recycling centers as part of the larger waste management efforts.

Recycling of tires The Middle East discards tens of millions tires annually. This is done by short-term approaches of landfilling, illegal dumping and stockpiling.

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