With the World Bank placing the Kingdom as the 13th most economically competitive country in the world, analysts believe that the country’s strong GDP, which implies higher consumer spending, is further fueling the production of waste. Moreover, the gradual shift from oil and gas production to the manufacturing and services sectors also plays a significant role in such massive waste generation. Construction debris in Riyadh alone has reached 2.1 million tons in 2009, with commercial and domestic waste adding another 1.4 million tons.
The statistics come from a major regional environmental services company, averda, which on Sunday night announced the launch of its operations in Saudi Arabia at the opening of the three-day Gulf Environment Forum, which ends at the Jeddah Hilton on Tuesday. The Beirut-based company, which claims to offer a full collection and disposal service for the private sector in Saudi Arabia, is showcasing its “comprehensive range of services” at an exhibition that runs alongside the forum. “Our latest expansion initiative will cover the Central, Western and Eastern regions of Saudi Arabia,” Walid Shaar, averda’s chief operations officer, told the media.
With an initial team of some 250 operatives in the Kingdom, averda has the capacity to provide more effective and advanced recycling and resource management. The company’s wide range of services include source separated collection, on-board weighing and on-line viewing and control. “As far as recycling and resource management goes, the Middle East, and the Kingdom in particular, are steadily progressing in the right direction,” he added. “Accordingly, we are working very hard to introduce a new level of service that will help the region build an efficient waste-control system. As perceptions about the environment in the Middle East continue to gradually change, we believe that our entry into Saudi Arabia will encourage both the public and private sectors to adopt technologically advanced solutions for their resource management needs.”
A key element of averda’s Kingdom-based operations is its ability to monitor its own environmental footprint through a fleet management tracking program. Shaar said. The company sees such new technology as the standard model for servicing future environmentally friendly cities. In addition, averda has also specified and deployed a range of hybrid trucks and electrically operated vehicles to safely transport waste and discarded materials in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Finally, both labor and equipment are integrated and shared across averda’s broad range of services to manage costs and minimize downtime.
“We have high hopes for our latest venture, and we are optimistic about the impact we will have in the Kingdom’s recycling and resource management sector,” Shaar said.