Reduce, reuse, recycle

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Save the world: solid waste can be greatly reduced through recycling materials such as paper and bottles.

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Solid waste is a fact of life. Very few people in the world today exist without producing solid waste of some sort - glass and plastic bottles, paper printouts, food packaging and containers, dead electronics, and unwanted textiles are all by-products of the modern consumer culture, and it is unlikely to change anytime soon.

China, India, and other emerging economies can't wait to increase their share of consumption, which is a development that producers around the world eagerly anticipate. The growth of the global economy is dependent on consumption, but as with almost all human activity of the past two centuries, mother earth is certainly paying the heaviest price.

The aggregate numbers for global municipal solid waste (or refuse) are not reliable, but everyone agrees that rubbish is increasing. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2006, US residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 251 million tonnes of waste, which is approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day - an increase of more than 100 million tonnes since 1980. The US is the largest consumer (and polluter) in the world - most estimates find that the US produces one-quarter of global waste. The GCC is not faring much better, and on a per capita the region has some ignoble bragging rights among the world's top polluters.

Musaed Al-Saleh, the vice chairman and CEO of the Kuwait-based National Projects Holding Company, is one of the leaders in waste management in the region. He tells Arabian Business: "Kuwait is placed at number three in terms of the worst ecological footprints in the world. Another Gulf country is placed inside the top 10. It's our responsibility to invest in this sector."

Governments in the region have been aware of the problem for a while, and most are enacting programmes to increase recycling capacity. Dubai took a significant step forward last year with the launch of the region's first fully automated solid waste sorting and recycling unit. The operation is run by a private company, Tadweer, and is backed by Dubai Municipality. The plant has the capability to treat 4000 tonnes per day of municipal solid waste, and sorts waste into 11 categories and treats non-recyclable materials like organic waste, thus reducing the burden on landfills and decreasing the emission of methane gas - a major contributor to global warming.

One of the challenges that waste management providers have to tackle is educating the public about the different types of waste, and changing people's habitual disposal of the waste. Most of the green issues that Arabian Business examined for this issue require significant capital expenditures that only governments and corporations can realistically undertake, but with solid waste, people are on the frontlines and can make a significant impact through implementing a three-pronged approach: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Reduction of waste is one of the easiest steps that everyone can do, and arguably has the greatest impact. It basically entails consuming and throwing away less. It is also a practice that doesn't begin with the consumer. Manufacturers around the world have been reducing the packaging around their products, redesigning them to use less raw materials during production and last longer. Supermarkets in many places have begun charging for plastic bags. Fiji Water - which recently announced that it will go ‘carbon negative', a claim that is widely contested among environmentalists - also announced that it will reduce the amount of plastic and paper it uses for bottles and cartons.

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