Category Archives: Waste Management

The Menace of Littering and How to Solve It

By | | , , ,
12 Comments

Littering is a common menace one can witness in all urban areas. Streets, sidewalks, parking lots, roads and highways are mostly covered with food wrappers, soft drink and water bottles, plastic bags, handbills, cigarette butts, tissues, papers and others. Littering is most likely to take place at locations where litter is already ‘present’. The Growing Menace of Litter Around 1.9 billion tonnes of litter end up in the ocean every year, which clearly shows that people tend to throw things randomly anywhere, more often than they throw waste in garbage bins. Litter is not just an ugly or an aesthetic … Continue reading →

The Role of Reverse Logistics in Waste Management

By | | ,
4 Comments

Reverse logistics is a process whereby companies can become more environmentally efficient through recycling, reusing, and reducing the amount of materials used. A more holistic view of reverse logistics includes reduction of materials in the forward system in such a way that fewer materials flow back, reuse of materials is possible, and recycling is facilitated. The measures aimed at reducing waste begin in the product design phase and incorporate the entire product life cycle, including transportation and final disposal. This will allow minimizing the waste downstream and allowing the product to go backward in the chain for possible re-manufacturer, reuse, … Continue reading →

Navigating the Disposal of Electronic Waste: Understanding WEEE Management

By | | ,
Leave a comment

The disposal and recycling of waste require meticulous handling, especially for certain kinds of waste that could potentially pose a risk to public health and safety. This discussion centres around the management of WEEE waste. Defining WEEE WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, encompassing a wide range of items that either plug into an electrical source or are battery-operated, commonly known as “e-waste.” This category also includes lighting equipment like fluorescent and high-intensity discharge lamps, and “white goods” such as major appliances (e.g., refrigerators, washers, and ovens) which account for approximately forty percent of all disposed and recycled … Continue reading →

Effective Ways to Tackle the Menace of E-Waste

By | | ,
4 Comments

Daily life has been made far more efficient, and glamorous, as technology improves at phenomenal rates. We are encouraged to go paperless, and drastically reduce waste from paper materials. However, technology has its own waste issues to deal with. Electronic waste (or e-waste), is the fastest growing waste stream, and its disposal is a major environmental concern in all parts of the world. When new technology does out with the old, our current model of disposing of ‘outdated’ technology is harming people, profits and most importantly, the planet. More than 50 million of tons of e-waste is generated globally and the quantity is rapidly … Continue reading →

Waste-to-Energy in Jordan: Potential and Challenges

By | | ,
1 Comment

Effective sustainable solid waste management is of great importance both for people’s health and for environmental protection. In Jordan, insufficient financial resources, growing population, rapid urbanization, inadequate management and lacking of technical skills represent a serious environmental challenge confronting local government. At the same time, energy remains Jordan’s top challenge for development. The energy needs to be produced in a sustainable way, preferably from renewable sources which have a minimum environmental impact. To face the future problems in waste management, as well as securing the demand of renewable energy, it is necessary to reuse the wasted resources in energy production. … Continue reading →

مقدمة في عملية التسميد

By | |
1 Comment

إن عملية التسميد هي  عبارة عن تفاعل معقد بين النفايات والكائنات الحية الدقيقة المتواجدة داخلها . الكائنات الدقيقة التي تنفذ هذه العملية تنقسم إلى ثلاث مجموعات: البكتيريا والفطريات، والفطريات الشعاعية . الفطريات الشعاعية هي شكل من أشكال البكتيريا مثل الفطريات التي تفتت المواد العضوية .المرحلة الأولى من النشاط البيولوجي هو استهلاك السكريات المتوفرة بسهولة عن طريق البكتيريا، مما يسبب ارتفاعا سريعا في درجات الحرارة . تليها  المرحلة الثانية التي تسبب فيها  البكتيريا والفطريات الشعاعية  انهيار السليلوز . المرحلة الأخيرة هي المرحلة  المعنية بإنهيار اليغنينس “lignins” الصلبة من قبل الفطريات . الحلول الوسط لهذه العملية تتخلص  بالتسميد بكلفة منخفضة دون التهوية … Continue reading →

Don’t Mess with Dahab – An Introduction

By | | ,
2 Comments

No matter where I were in the world right now, I’d be writing about the same problem – trash –  because it’s not just the streets and shores of Dahab that are littered with rubbish. Travel to coastal cities around the world and you’ll find many of the beaches in much the same state. Cairo and other places in Egypt are also dealing with their own problems of waste management. There always seems to be a lot of talk about the obstacles we face in dealing with this problem: Garbage collection services provided by the city government are inefficient. Dumpsters … Continue reading →

Biogas from Animal Wastes

By | | ,
8 Comments

The Middle East and North Africa region has a strong animal population. The livestock sector, in particular sheep, goats and camels, plays an important role in the national economy of regional countries. Millions of animals are imported in MENA each year from around the world. In addition, the region has witnessed very rapid growth in the poultry sector. Animal Waste Management Animal waste is a valuable source of nutrients and renewable energy. However, most of the waste is collected in lagoons or left to decompose in the open which pose a significant environmental hazard. The air pollutants emitted from manure include … Continue reading →

My Little Paper Recycling Project

By | | ,
33 Comments

Paper industry is considered as one of the world’s largest consumers of fossil fuels and biggest industrial polluter. The industry is criticized by environmental groups for being responsible for massive deforestation around the world. With the use of modern technology such as the printing press and the highly mechanised harvesting of wood, paper has become a cheap commodity. This has led to a high level of consumption and waste. Worldwide consumption of paper has risen by 400% in the past 40 years, with 35% of harvested trees being used for paper manufacture. Paper wastes constitute as much as one-fourth of … Continue reading →

Waste Management in Jeddah

By | | , , ,
8 Comments

Jeddah, a major commercial hub in the Middle East, is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia. Solid waste management is a big problem in Jeddah as the city’s population is increasing at a rapid pace and has now touched 3.5 million. More than 5,000 tons of solid waste is produced every day and Jeddah municipal authorities are finding it increasingly hard to cope with the problem of urban waste. The management of solid waste in Jeddah begins with collection of wastes from bins scattered across residential and commercial areas. Wastes is collected and sent to transfer stations from where it … Continue reading →

Building a Plastic Bottle Village From Rubbish

By | | ,
4 Comments

This is an inspiring true story that demonstrates a solution to the rubbish problem, especially discarded plastic bottles, plaguing our planet! We hope it will encourage and inspire other visionaries to take similar actions around the world! Robert Bezeau moved to the tropical paradise of Bocas del Toro, Panama, after he grew tired of the cold weather in his home country of Canada. He loved Panama, but at the same time, he was dismayed by the rubbish removal left behind by more than 100,000 tourists visiting the area every year. While he walked the beaches, he began collecting discarded plastic … Continue reading →

E-waste Recyclers are a Growing Concern to the Economy of the UAE

By | | ,
Leave a comment

Amidst the  COP 28 proceedings, the launch of ‘waste to zero’ initiative called our attention to hazardous waste management. As per the data unveiled by the former US Vice President Gore, at COP28’s main plenary hall, UAE’s greenhouse gas emissions rose by 7.5% in 2022 from the previous years. The waste to zero initiative launched at COP28 will be a joint initiative between The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) and Tadweer (Abu Dhabi Waste Management Company) aiming towards decarbonisation of waste. Being the largest emirate of the UAE, Abu Dhabi also has high level of industrial activities –  … Continue reading →