Dr Ramy Salemdeeb, Founder of Zero Waste MENA, announced as winner of 35 Under 35 Award

11 May 2018

Dr Ramy Salemdeeb, Founder of Zero Waste MENA, announced as winner of 35 Under 35 Award 

Dr Ramy Salemdeeb was announced as one of the winners of the 35 Under 35 awards programme.

35 Under 35 is an awards programme, organised by letsrecycle.com in partnership with Grundon, which identifies the ‘young guns’ in the sector who are striving for professional excellence, promoting industry innovation and giving back to their company, local authority or community.

Speaking of the achievement, Dr Salemdeeb said: Beyond thrilled to make it to the 35 Under 35. This truly is an honour that I’m proud of and humbled to receive. I owe many of my colleagues and mentors a sincere “thank you” for all of their support over the years”.

Lorraine Milburn, Head of Human Resources at Grundon, who was one of the judges, said: “Grundon was delighted to play its part in this inaugural event and we were very excited to see the calibre of all those who entered. The judging was extremely tough but all are extremely worthy winners.

“It is reassuring to know that the future of our industry has such a wealth of up-and-coming talent which will stand us in good stead during the challenging times ahead. We hope these awards will develop and go on to become a real benchmark for future excellence and something that younger professionals will strive towards during their careers.”

The full list of 35 Under 35 winners is available here.



The next deadline for 35 Under 35 entries is 10 April 2019. For further information visit www.35-under-35.com



Ends

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Towards pursuing its strategy: be’ah closes down a Million m2 traditional dumpsite, the biggest in the Sultanate

Over the years, the traditional dumpsite and negative waste disposal practices, such as traditional dumping of waste in open areas and waste burning, in Al Buraimi Governorate has been causing several hazardous problems for the environment and human health, these problems include random fires that cause air pollution. Not to mention the overall dissatisfaction among citizens and residents who live nearby the dumpsite.

Prior the closure of Al Buraimi site (Source: Be'ah).

To tackle these environmentally damaging problems, Oman Environmental Services Holding Company “be’ah” closed down one of the largest traditional dumpsites in the Sultanate. With an area of 1 Million m2 and poor waste management processes that lasted for two decades, the traditional dumpsite’s operations in Al Buraimi came to an end in July 2017. The closure project included closing the dumpsite, composing and reducing the amount of waste at the site, and finally covering the site with a thick layer of soil. It was replaced with an engineered landfill designed according to international standards. Plans are in place to rehabilitate the old dumpsite.



It is noteworthy that the project is part of be’ah’s strategy to control environmental damage incurred during traditional waste dumping processes. In this matter, the company has shut down more than 200 traditional dumpsites since 2015 and more closure projects are in progress. The company’s strategy also includes structuring the waste sector and its related services in a sustainable manner, developing the industry, and supporting the national economy. In addition, be'ah works on moving towards sustainable waste management practices as per the international standards by establishing the required infrastructure, restructure the municipal waste collection services and improve public awareness of waste management.

A bird-view aerial picture of Al Buraimi site after its closure.

About be’ah:

Oman Environmental Services Holding Company S.A.O.C “be’ah” was established in 2007. In 2009, Royal Decree No. 46/2009, granted be’ah the mandate and the legal status as the entity responsible for solid waste management in the Sultanate of Oman. be’ah strives towards a vision to conserve the environment of a beautiful Oman for future generations. be’ah’s main objectives are to control environmental damage incurred during traditional waste dumping processes; structure the waste sector and its related services in a sustainable manner; develop the industry; and support the economy. The company acquired three Integrated Management System (IMS) certifications (ISO 9001: 2015, ISO 1400: 2015, and OHSAS 18001: 2007).

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Solid Waste Management in Jordan

Solid Waste Management (Fact sheet) of Jordan from Ramy Salemdeeb

Solid Waste Generation and Collection in Jordan

By: Basem Abusneineh, Operations Manager at Bee'ah UAE.

Waste management is a global concern nowadays. The challenges are increasing in the developing countries due to the lack of proper waste management. Most countries in the Middle East, including Jordan, are trying to improve their waste management systems with the fast increment in population.

Municipal solid waste generated in Jordan was more than 2 million tons as in 2015. With the latest census, it was found that the solid waste generated per capita is 0.99 Kg per day in the urban areas and 0.87 kg per day in the rural areas. While population is expected to double in the coming two decades, rate of the solid waste generation will double as well.

The high generation of solid waste in Jordan has affected the whole waste management cycle. Collection, for instance, became a great challenge especially in the highly populated areas. However, about 90% of waste generated in Jordan is collected from the urban areas and 70% is collected from the rural areas. In most of the areas, collection is done once daily. More strategies must be applied to overcome this issue and to reach the 100% collection rate in the nearest future.

Jordan has a long way to go until reaching the desired integrated waste management system. Nevertheless, it is moving in the right direction and the coming few years are promising in this field.

Figure: Actual and estimated amount of solid waste generation in Jordan

Lebanon: Is Incineration really the answer ?

By Nour Kanso

Lebanon has been heading the news regionally and internationally and not because of its famous landmarks or its favorable weather but because of its waste crisis. It’s truly sad how a beautiful country with so much potential suffers from a problem that can be easily solved and yet its been two years with no clear and transparent plan but divided opinions and conflicts.

The topic of incineration as a only solution to a long lasting crisis has been a debatable option between the public , NGOs, institutions and the government. One is for and the other is against. In a recent conference at AUB’s Issam Fares Institute, an associate professor said that “Incineration is an extremely expensive technology that requires a lot of investment in environmental protections”.

Incinerators emit several pollutants based on the type of the waste , which causes health deterioration and environmental degradation. Most dangerous pollutants emitted are particulate matter, dioxins and furans, CO,NOx,SOx and metals. The process of combustion present a significant risk to environment and public health. More importantly , the main impact on health is the higher occurrence of cancer and respiratory symptoms; other possible effects are congenital abnormalities and hormonal defects. In regards to environment, global warming, acidification, photochemical ozone or smog formation,

eutrophication, and human and animal toxicity are all possible outcomes of incineration. As such, an economical and environment-friendly technologies should be adopted otherwise we are on a dangerous path of endangering human, animal , and plant life and other resources.

The reason why the government sees incineration as an attractive option is because it eliminates the need for landfills as well as generating electricity which helps in providing more energy to household especially that the country suffered from a lot of electricity cuts during summer. Nevertheless, Lebanon doesn’t have the adequate infrastructure, regulatory authority to monitor the emissions of the plants, qualified staff to understand the complexity of this process. Moreover, the country doesn’t have the labs necessary to measure and monitor some of the more dangerous byproducts.

Overall , incineration does not align with Lebanon’s waste composition as its mostly organic and is not source separated and therefore much eco-friendly options can be adopted and exercised starting with sorting at the source and moving to recycling and composting.

References:

Sharma, R., Sharma, M., Sharma, R., et al. (2013). The impact of incinerators on human health and

environment. Reviews on Environmental Health, 28(1), pp. 67-72. Retrieved 10 Nov. 2017, from doi:

10.1515/reveh-2012-0035

Daily Star. (2017).Experts warn against waste incineration. Retrieved from: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/

News/Lebanon-News/2017/Mar-02/395719-experts-warn-against-waste-incineration.ashx

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