By Isabel Ovalle
The challenge of waste management is global, and Qatar is no stranger to it, with its residents generating over 871,000 tonnes of domestic waste in 2012. The maximum of daily waste registered last year reached a peak of 2,620 tonnes, a number that the year before did not surpass 2,443 tonnes.
The Ministry of Environment informed that in 2011 the domestic waste collected reached 811,543 tonnes. A simple equation reveals that the amount of domestic waste produced in Qatar, like the country’s population, has increased. The garbage generated in local homes grew in over 7 percent from 2011 to 2012, when the number of collected tonnes was of 871,608.
Engineer Mansoor Saleh Bu Mattar Al Muhannadi, Manager at Waste Treatment Centre of the Ministry of Environment, explained that the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning -General Cleaning Project- is responsible for the collection of domestic garbage.
“The waste is delivered to the new transfer stations, under the management of the Ministry of Environment, to later be moved to the new Domestic Solid Wastes Management Centre (DSWMC). The centre has its own facility to separate waste,” he clarified.
Qatar has only one landfill for domestic waste located in Mesaieed, in the Southern side of the country. “The landfill is the final destination of domestic wastes, around 800 tonnes per day, and bulky waste, around 10,000 tonnes per day, of private sectors. The Rowadet Rashed landfill is for construction waste and used tires,” said the official from the Ministry of Environment.
The new integrated Domestic Solid Wastes Management Centre is the first plant in the Middle East and the only one in the GCC, stated the expert, while adding that the centre has started producing electricity.
“The integrated domestic solid waste management center in Mesaieed is operating since October 2011 and is now self efficient. The power supply has been disconnected from the electricity grid, moreover, the excess of the power produced by DSWMC will be in Qatar grid in the near future,” predicted Al Muhannadi.
In this dirty context, Sustainable Qatar, a young volunteer organisation, has grown into a public forum where environmental issues are discussed. The association was recognised as an official observer during COP18 by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The organisation was founded five years ago and currently the number of members keeps growing and counts on Qatari speakers, presenters and attendees, including a local bee apiary expert and researcher on the Qatar Whale Shark project.
Around 50 people attend every meeting where discussions on environmental issues relevant to Qatar are addressed. In addition, the organisation is a founding and board member of Qatar Sustainability Network (QSN) and receives numerous requests and inquiries for capacity building and collaboration.
Sustainable Qatar’s tagline is: Yes, you can make a difference in the world, one person at a time. This, the organisation has emphasised, rings particularly true in local waste management. “It is easy to hide behind missing infrastructure and criticize Qatar for not having in place what seems obvious. But if recycling does not happen here, we‘re all to be blamed for it, at least partially,” the volunteer organisation said.
According to the group, current market research in Qatar does not support the need for recycling. Nevertheless, the group considers that with a bit of determination everyone can be part of the solution “which requires leadership and personal initiative.”
This volunteer organisation considers that “the real hero in Qatar is Al Suwaidi Paper Company that picks up and recycles paper from many office buildings and residential areas at no or little cost. Lucky Recycling recycles all metals, while Qatar is also building capacity for plastic and tire recycling from both commercial and residential streams.”
Sustainable Qatar admitted that recycling is a challenge here and more services and infrastructure are needed. Ultimately, the group pointed out: “The majority of the Western expat community, highly educated in environmental issues, often chooses to disregard this basic knowledge while living in Qatar. Dropping off recyclables at the few public places in Qatar seems inconvenient. If we do not support these efforts that provide critical data for market research and the need for recycling, it won’t ever happen and nobody else but us can be blamed for it.”The Peninsula
