Building waste recycle push a success

MORE than half of the total construction waste generated last year was recycled, it was revealed.

Nearly 355,000 tonnes of waste was recycled resulting in a 52 per cent drop in the volume of construction and demolition debris ending in the landfill.

This was disclosed by Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf, who spoke during an inspection trip to the Askar landfill yesterday.

He added that the volume of solid, domestic and commercial waste received at the landfill reached about 1.8 million tonnes last year, of which the largest share, 38 per cent (677,000 tonnes), constituted demolition and construction waste.

This was followed by household waste (32pc, 566,000 tonnes), commercial and industrial waste (24pc, 424,000 tonnes) and finally agricultural waste (seven pc, 126,000 tonnes).

“Nearly 100,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste was used internally for the landfill, for waste coverage operations, as well as the walls of the pillars of the landfill boundaries,” said Mr Khalaf.

The minister underlined the importance of an initiative to set up a construction waste recycling facility, work on which began in January 2019, to separate demolition and construction waste and then process it into materials that can be used in infrastructure projects.

“The project of managing and operating the Askar landfill is one of the most important initiatives of the national waste management strategy,” said Mr Khalaf.

“This initiative is also considered among the initiatives that fall within the projects that require immediate implementation, which will raise the efficiency and development of landfill management.”

He said through the use of modern technology, the initiative had helped in the effective management and operation of the Askar landfill, through partnership with the private sector, thus extending the life of the site to six-and-a-half years instead of only two years.

Mr Khalaf said studies were still in place at the ministry’s domestic waste department for support techniques and efforts with the relevant government agencies and the private sector to develop and increase the use of these materials to reduce the amount of waste in the landfill.

“This initiative also contributed to organising the disposal operations through a special access path and creating a streamlined working platform for the disposal of waste, compressing it and then covering it with layers of sand in a tight enclosure, which helped to avoid water leakage in the landfill and get rid of biogas,” he said.

Mr Khalaf pointed out that reopening the landfill with this initiative contributed to enhancing the security of the landfill and monitoring and improving performance for a healthy environment.

He was accompanied on the inspection visit by Municipalities Under-Secretary Shaikh Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, assistant under-secretary for shared municipal services Shawqiya Humaidan and domestic waste management department acting director Lamia Telfat.

Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/838588/Building-waste-recycle-push-a-success