JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia has allocated more than SR200 billion for the protection of environment and safeguard its achievements as part of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 development initiative, said Adel Mousli, director general of Jeddah Environment and Sustainable Development Company. Speaking to Okaz/Saudi Gazette, Mousli said his company was building four industrial complexes in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam and Jubail to recycle industrial garbage at a cost of SR500 million. "The Jeddah factory is nearing completion and will be opened within 30 days," Mousli said. The SR80 million factory, located in Rabigh, covers an area of 1 million square meters. The factory will be considered one of the largest such facilities for the recycling of industrial garbage. "The plant will play a big role in getting rid of electronic garbage like in the US and Europe," said Mousli. Such plants destroy tens of tons of electronic garbage including mobile phones. Mousli said an international survey conducted by a mobile phone manufacturing company has found the majority of 6,500 respondents who took part in the survey from 13 countries keep their old cell phones inside their homes without using them. The rate of mobile phone ownership in the country has reached 144 percent. Mousli said the number of mobile phones in the Kingdom was more than the country's population. There are more than 40 million subscribers for a population of 25 million, he said. According to a report issued by the Environmental Protection Authority, electronic garbage constitutes 85 percent of total waste often dumped in open areas, causing pollution detrimental to human health. "The most dangerous industrial component is lead, which is found in many electronic gadgets," Mousli said. "Industrial, agricultural and technological advancement has increased the volume of garbage with varying content. Accumulation of garbage is a major threat to environment worldwide." He said the Saudi environmental protection agencies have given utmost importance to get rid of garbage in a scientific way without affecting environment. He attributed the tremendous increase in garbage to the rise in population and consumption as well as expansion in industrial and trading activities. Total garbage in the Kingdom has crossed 30 million tons. "Although dumping garbage is an easy way to get rid of it, this method will lead to wasting of valuable resources," he pointed out. Mousli said recycling of garbage would help save valuable materials and ensure a sustainable environment. "We can produce energy by burning inflammable items in the garbage and retrieve other recyclable materials to produce plastic, glass, paper and metals. We can also produce manure from organic waste," he explained. He said the recycling program would reduce the amount of garbage in dumps. "Recycled garbage in the Kingdom and other Gulf countries does not exceed 5 percent of the total garbage produced. There are many reasons for that and the most important among them is the high cost compared to dumping," he added. Mousli was talking to Okaz/Saudi Gazette on the sidelines of the GCC Environment Forum 2017, which concluded in Jeddah on Saturday. The forum witnessed the signing of a MOU between the Center of Excellence for Environmental Studies at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and Mousli's company. The agreement was to realize their common objective of transferring international technology required to recycle industrial and dangerous garbage.
