Faced with the accumulation of garbage in the desert, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has found a way to get rid of the waste , thanks to the use of incinerators that will convert it into electricity . The UAE, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, is building one of the Gulf’s largest plants to convert waste into energy to alleviate its chronic problem with garbage and, at the same time, its dependence on gas-based power plants.
Environmental groups are not convinced, and say that it would be better to recycle, fertilize and change consumption habits that generate waste. They warn of the risk of contamination by gas incinerators, which emit CO2 .
But engineer Nouf Wazir from waste management company Bee’ah argues that they will use non-recyclable garbage. “Not everyone knows that garbage has value,” said Wazir, a project engineer. The Sharjah facility will come online this year, burning more than 300,000 tonnes of waste per year to supply 28,000 homes.
In the neighboring emirate of Dubai , another plant is being developed at a cost of 1.2 billion dollars, according to Hitachi Zosen Inova, a company associated with the project. When completed in 2024, the Dubai plant will be one of the largest in the world, capable of receiving up to 1.9 million tonnes of waste per year, or 45% of the emirate’s household garbage.
“People consume a lot”
Moving from a desert outpost to a thriving business center, the UAE multiplied its waste production. Also its energy consumption, which has grown 750% since 1990, according to the International Energy Agency. With a population of 10 million , five times more than 30 years ago, the UAE uses more electricity and produces more waste per capita than almost any other country. The authorities estimate the production at 1.8 kilos of garbage per person per day.
In the UAE “people consume a lot and discard a lot,” said Riad Bestani, founder of ECOsquare, a consultancy in Dubai specializing in the ecological management of garbage.
There are landfills all over the country. In Dubai there are six that cover an area of 1.6 million square meters, according to the municipality. In the absence of other solutions, the city estimates that landfills will occupy 5.8 million square meters in the emirate by 2041, equivalent to 800 football fields.
Landfill fees are “almost non-existent,” so it’s cheap and easy to dump all materials into the desert, “said Emma Barber, director of Dubai-based DGrade, which designs clothing and accessories from recycled plastic bottles.
The UAE has sought to diversify its energy matrix, which depends on more than 90% of gas plants. Last year, the UAE inaugurated the first nuclear plant in the Arab world and has abundant solar energy resources. The country seeks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Separate, organize, recycle
Plant lovers say incinerators have minimal pollution risks , but activists say there are more positive approaches to the environment.
According to Janek Vahk of Zero Waste Europe , incinerating garbage is “easier” than installing landfills, which take up a lot of space, but it is far from being environmentally friendly. “The most beneficial thing for the climate (and) the environment would be recovery” and ‘compost’, Vahk told AFP. “But this does not happen because … it is easier to simply burn than to separate, organize and recycle,” he explained.
The Brussels-based NGO called for a moratorium on new waste incinerators and the lag of old ones by 2040, warning that the electricity they produce is greenhouse gas-intensive, even compared to fossil fuels.
Vahk argues that incineration is “more efficient” in Nordic countries, which are cold, when the heat they generate can also be harnessed, but not in hot deserts. “If they only produce energy, the greenhouse gas intensity of this energy is very high,” said Vahk.
Rami Shaar, co-founder of Washmen, a startup that collects customer laundry and recycles at the same time, noted that turning waste into electricity “is not necessarily green energy.” “It is like a solution to not extract more oil, but it does not solve the whole problem,” he said.
