The National Waste Management Centre (NWMC), Eastern Province Municipality and the Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to start integrated waste management and waste recycling activities in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
According to the terms of the MoU, the three parties will jointly work on the execution of the overall waste management strategy for the Eastern Province to achieve a set of strategic objectives for recycling by 2035. This includes the recycling of 81 percent of the 2 million tons of annually produced municipal solid waste and 60 percent of the approximately 1.5 million tons of construction and demolition waste per year.
As part of an integrated waste management system, NWMC and SIRC will build state-of-the-art recycling facilities in the Eastern Province to recycle all types of waste. This includes recycling of municipal waste into recyclables such as fertilizer, paper, plastics and metals.
The agreement was signed by Engineer Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadley, the chairman of the board of directors of NWMC; Engineer Fahad Aljubair, Mayor of the Eastern Province; and Engineer Jeroen Vincent, chief executive officer of SIRC.
Commenting on the agreement, Aljubair said: “This agreement strengthens our continuous efforts to improve the system of work in the waste management sector and upgrade the services provided to the residents in accordance with the best international standards.”
He added that the signing of the MoU comes within the efforts of the Eastern Province Municipality to preserve and protect the environment and achieve its sustainability targets.
Meanwhile, SIRC’s Vincent said: “The signing of this agreement represents an extension of the agreements signed recently by us, which aims at developing the waste management sector through the establishment of modern recycling facilities. We are proud and honoured to be part of this agreement that will enable our role as waste management sector development company by establishing state-of-the-art recycling facilities in the Eastern Province.”
The Saudi Investment Recycling Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and was set up in 2017 to act as the national sector development initiative in the waste management sector. It also supports the Kingdom’s circular economy vision’s by achieving an overall recycling target of 81 per cent by 2035.
