Materials Recycling Facility

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December 2001


I won’t easily forget my mother’s reaction when she witnessed the transformation of disposed plastics of all types into something unbelievably different in terms of appearance and utility. Mum had accompanied me when I went to meet Abdul Hamid Khoory, chairman of Eco Plastic Industries that recycles plastic waste so effectively. Khoory showed us around the factory after we had finished our discussion.

In the Eco Plastic Industries, Dubai, piles and piles of dumped plastics - food packaging, plastic carrier bags and sheets, ribbons, bottles, video cassettes, oil drums..….. were being cleaned, shredded and granulated; then being fed all mixed up into a gigantic machine. A Tyrannosaurus rex gobbling up all that plastic. My mother, who had accompanied me that day, didn’t know what to expect T rex to do with everything it was consuming. The ‘dinosaur’ hummed. Then grunted, rumbled and shuddered violently. We watched in silence as its digestive system worked. Quite suddenly, it hissed and, with a thud, spat out a plastic log. “Oh my goodness!” shrieked mum, absolutely enthralled. So disbelieving was she that we had to have a repeat demo.

All at once, it dawned on her that this is what had gone into making the fences, patios, car ports, benches, lamp posts, awnings, garbage bins, plant potters that we could see liberally strewn around the premises of the factory.

I was reminded of this incident when I visited Ras Al Khaimah’s materials recovery facility recently and saw what an elaborate, time consuming process it is to ‘ready’ for recycling, all the materials we use every day of our lives.


A ‘Materials Recovery Facility’ (MRF, casually referred to as “murf”) is operating in Ras Al Khaimah, offering a fascinating insight into what garbage goes through after we throw it in the trash bin. Meanwhile, there is a yellow flyer floating about the emirate:

WARNING: New environmental regulations are being enforced by the Government of Ras Al Khaimah to keep the city clean…..

The emirate of Ras Al Khaimah may be tiny and not all that rich, but it is proving the most resourceful as far as waste management is concerned.

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In fact, it is gaining quite a reputation in the region for “making it happen,” Sayed E. Haque, director overseas operations, Ceres Associates (the US-based company that is providing technical expertise for the integrated waste management project) tells us. The mayor of Medina, Saudi Arabia, we hear, can hardly believe what the emirate has achieved in record time. Back in the UAE, Sharjah, is inclined to emulate its little neighbour’s example. Other places too are eyeing RAK’s accomplishment with interest. More so, because it has now begun to earn money from the sale of materials recovered for recycling, while the emirate itself wears a cleaner, earth-friendly attire.

Workers in RAK start separating recyclables from the general trash right by the garbage containers that have been placed all around the city. Ideally they needn’t have had to do the separation here, as green (for paper, plastic, cans and glass) and blue (for other trash) containers are provided at most places, for citizens to sort and dispose their own garbage. But source segregation (by us) depends upon awareness levels; and don’t we know how long it takes for environmental consciousness to seep in?

Refuse collection trucks bring this municipal waste to the MRF, which acts as a transfer station for waste going to the landfill. Here, everything brought in (and going out) is first weighed, and then downloaded for recyclables to be recovered.

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Some 20 different materials can be segregated but, at present, just 10 are being retrieved - wood (packaging), green waste (tree cuttings and plants for composting); cardboard; office papers, including newsprint; other mixed papers; plastics (different types and colours); and glass (different colours).

Everything moves slowly on an elevated conveyor - a ‘sort belt’ - on which workers stand, helmeted, masked, gloved and fortified with deodorisers (along the railing). As trash transits past, they remove the recyclables and drop them off into ‘bays’ below, some items landing on the floor, and some, such as glass, in containers placed in the appropriate bay. Trash is sent moving on the ‘sort belt’ twice, just so that materials that are left out the first time round may be recovered.

After the initial sorting, there is still a lot of work left to make waste a marketable commodity. From the bays, materials are picked up for cleaning, processing, baling, and finally, transportation.. Glass is further segregated through sort bins into clear, amber and flint colours; then crushed before being sold to a local glass factory. Plastic is separated into high density polyethylene - HDPE (e.g., milk and juice containers, other food packaging, soap and detergent bottles) and polyethylene terephthalate - PET (e.g., fizzy drink and mineral water bottles); then into clear, blue, green and white; next, caps, labels and rings are removed; after this, plastics are washed and dried; and finally, shredded and granulated for shipment. As far as paper is concerned - cardboard, office paper and newsprint are each baled separately for export.

And what about the refuse that’s left? It is collected, compressed and baled so as to reduce space both while transporting it and in the landfill. It is packed and made to look like “a solid piece of cake,” smiles Dr. Shaheed Khader, manager recycling of the waste management project.

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“There is a big market around the world for recyclable materials,” he tells us. “The sale of disposed materials is now generating income for the RAK Public Works Department.” Materials recovered are being sent out to Malaysia, Singapore and other places. Some 200 tons of waste arrive at the MRF presently. Of this, 20 - 30 per cent comprises recyclables. There are some waste materials that are separately collected and transported directly to the landfill - kitchen waste from restaurants and hotels, cattle waste, chicken waste, hospital waste…

“There has been a 20-fold increase in earnings from the sale of recyclable materials over the last year,” Michel Sakkal (technical manager, RAK Public Works Department , responsible for executing the project ) tells us with pride. What is more, the waste management project is giving rise to downstream industry - a PET recycling plant, for starters.

Ambrose Vase, resident partner Middle East, Vacumn International - USA writes about an absolutely wonderful and effective way to conserve natural resources and protect the environment..

Computers and office equipment are one of the most inefficient users of electrical power. This is because they are commonly used for an extremely small part of the time they are ‘switched on’ Average daily ‘ON but not-in-use’ figures in the San Francisco bay area indicate: monitors - 42%; laser printers - 90%; copiers - 67%. These figures are for a 9 working hour office. In other studies it has been seen that :

  • 35% of offices are unoccupied during the day.
  • Normal operation of a computer is 2.7 hrs/day only.
  • The ‘stand by’ power is up to 60% of ‘full power’. When you couple this with results of other studies that show saving possibility of 42 % during office hours and up to 76 % reduction after office hours, you will see that the amount of power that is wasted is enormous.

Switching off is one way and the most effective way for each of us contributing to energy and environment. The next step would be to put in automatic hardware options that control this waste.

Again, switch off when ‘not-in-use’ does not shorten, but extends the life of the equipment. This is because the major cause of PC failure is heat, and the longevity is a direct function of power ON hours.

Finally, if 100 PCs are on, to remove the heat generated by them it needs 3.4 tons of air conditioning.

WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO?

Switch off or put an auto-switch off device. You will:

  • save power (on use and ACs)
  • save the earth (environment) - 1000 PCs emit up to 500 tons of CO2
  • increase the life of the PC.
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