UAE to invest US$ 200 million to boost electronics recycling

ABU DHABI (Scrap Monster):  Sharjah, UAE-based environmental and waste management firm Bee’ah has signed an agreement to construct a new electronics waste recycling facility within in waste management complex in Sharjah. The plant will be developed in partnership with Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), Gulf Islamic Investments (GII) and India-based Attero Recycling India Ltd. The venture named Attero-Tadwir-E would be UAE’s largest e-waste recycling facility. The project is the first of six to eight plants it plans to build across the UAE over the next three years with an investment of nearly USD 200 million.

HE Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO, Bee’ah stated that the constant technological advancements have resulted in older devices becoming obsolete at an ever-increasing rate. The need for computer and electronics recycling is higher than ever before, he noted. The association with leading players is a sign of Bee’ah’s commitment to join hands with internationally acknowledged industry leaders in bringing latest technology into the region. The innovative recycling technology to be employed at the facility will ensure that electronic waste from the region is processed in an environment-friendly manner causing lowered carbon footprint.

According to Shurooq officials, the setting up of the plant demonstrates its commitment to enhance Sharjah’s appeal as one of the top business destinations in the region. E-waste recycling will provide new investment opportunities in the region, along with providing significant environmental benefits.

Nitin Gupta, CEO, Attero Recycling India highlighted the significance of responsible e-waste recycling, mainly due to presence of dangerous elements in them, including lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium which could cause serious ailments such as cancer. Also, improper waste disposal leads to unauthorized access to confidential data, which in turn could lead to serious consequences. Moreover, e-waste contains considerable quantities of high value metals such as gold, palladium, cobalt, lithium and platinum. The extraction of precious metals from e-waste presents lucrative business opportunity, said Gupta.

The proposed e-waste recycling facility will utilize the technology developed in-house at Attero India’s facility. The cutting edge proprietary technology will be highly cost-efficient when compared with traditional smelting facilities. The site operations will cover the entire cycle starting with collection of electronic waste to extraction of precious metals. The completion date of the project is yet to be announced.

Meantime, Bee’ah announced that it has a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Masdar to develop a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy (WtE) plant with a capacity to divert up to 300,000 tonnes of solid waste to landfill. The facility would be capable to generate 30 megawatts (MW) of energy by incineration of solid waste. With this, Bee’ah’s total power supply to the Sharjah electricity grid will reach 90 MW.

Incidentally, studies conducted by the United Nations suggest that average UAE resident generates 17.2 kilograms of electronic waste every year, thus making it one of the largest e-waste generators in the Middle East region along with Kuwait. The GCC region generated nearly 600,000 tonnes of e-waste during 2015, which is expected to rise to 900,000 tonnes by 2020.