The GCC region will require $60-$85 billion investment across four key value streams – plastic, concrete & cement, metal, and bio-waste – to meet targets of managing municipal waste in the region over the next 20 years, a study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said.
This investment would cover design, collection, sorting, and recycling investment across these four key waste streams, said the study by BCG in collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
“Meeting bold targets and increasing circularity in the GCC region will yield multi-dimensional benefits,” Shelly Trench, Managing Director and Partner, BCG, said.
“Beyond the obvious environmental value, the transition to a circular economy promises economic gains linked to job creation, economic growth, self-sufficiency and independence from external regulatory pressures,” Trench said.
The study indicated that optimising circularity could increase GDP by approximately $95 -$105 billion across the GCC from the four key waste streams, and therefore accelerate economic diversification away from fossil fuel resources.
“It will increase independence from environmental regulatory pressures on key regional export goods, besides supporting economic independence from imported goods such as fertilizer through bio-waste recycling,” the study said.
With the expansion of GCC urban areas, municipalities in the GCC are challenged to handle the ever-increasing waste generation through the existing landfill strategies.
Many GCC countries, however, are already investing to improve their waste management, with deals soaring in volume and value in 2019, the study pointed out.
The study, titled ‘Recycling in the GCC: Securing Valuable Resources for a Sustainable Future’, finds that securing finite resources for future generations and minimising environmental impact will depend on further increasing waste collection and recycling targets globally as well as across the GCC.
The GCC generates between 105 and 130 million tons of waste per annum, primarily from municipal solid waste, construction and demolition waste and agricultural waste.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE account for approximately 75 percent of the municipal waste in GCC.
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