Recycling reaches all time high levels in Sharjah

SHARJAH, UAE (Scrap Monster): Recycling of waste has reached an all time high since the beginning of 2011 in Sharjah but other emirates with lesser infrastructure continues to witness more waste ending up in land fills, reported.

Quoting Jeremy Byatt, Vice Presidnet at Bee'ah, Sharjah's waste handling company, the paper said that the comapny had recycled 34 percent of the waste. The landfill site in Al Saj'ah managed by Bee'ah swells with waste every day, and receives about 23,000 tonnes of municipal waste per month. It measures approximately four square kilometres.

Plastic recycling alone has increased by 700 per cent from March 2010 to 2011 including PET and mixed plastic. Paper and cardboard has gone up by 366 per cent, followed by a 135 per cent increase in aluminium recycling for the same period. Jeremy Byatt said that the recycling revolution taking place in UAE would be good for the economy.

Bee'ah aims to increase the amount of waste not going to landfill from 33.7 per cent to 40 per cent by the end of 2012, said James McGuire, director of operations. The volume of plastic bags handled by the company is quite high.

The Al Saj'ah landfill is 10 metres deep and rises 25 metres above sea level.

Instead of going to Sharjah's Al Saj'ah landfill last year, more than 100 million kilogrammes of organic waste was recycled, 90 per cent of construction and demolition waste was recovered, and more than 286,000 tyres were recycled per month at the Tyre Recycling Facility, all operated by Bee'ah, Gulf News report added.