GEO-6 Regional Asssement for West Asia


Box 2.7.1: e-Waste


Presently, there is no regional policy regarding the management of e-waste. The bulk of it is being disposed of in dumpsites, with 5 per cent being exported to Asia, Africa and South America for recycling by the private sector. Saudi Arabia is one of the largest e-waste generators, producing more than 3 million tonnes per year. Qatar has e-waste management regulation. Legal frameworks are being prepared in UAE, Jordan and Bahrain.


infrastructure. But in each of these countries there has been either a long delay or a period of frustrated procurement and development in advancing these plans. Many lack appropriate infrastructure developments on the ground supported by the necessary resources, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, or links to strategic objectives, all of which hinders the progress of their policies.


Waste Collection and Segregation


Municipal solid waste collection coverage is generally good in West Asia’s high- and upper-middle-income countries (World Bank 2015) such as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Lebanon. Syria and Yemen have the lowest coverage rates of waste collection and segregation (Table 2.7.1) (Sweepnet 2014; UNSD 2015).


Waste collection in some countries in the region is affected by regional conflict, with refugees adding 15.7 per cent to municipal solid waste generation in Lebanon at a rate of 0.484 kilograms per refugee per day. There is little source segregation and wastes are collected from communal containers of typically 1.2 cubic metres placed in the street, and often overfilled. In Lebanon, containers do not have lids as a security measure. Industrial, medical and hazardous streams are usually but not always collected separately (El- Khoury and Partners 2015).


Poor regulation control and planning in the region mean that fly tipping4


4 Fly tipping is the illegal deposit of waste on land 94 and littering are a major problem. Monitoring in


The informal sector focuses its recycling efforts on the most valuable materials, including 57 per cent iron and ferrous


Abu Dhabi over a three month period in 2009–2010 revealed that almost 10 000 incidents of contract non-compliances in waste collection and street cleaning occurred. Investigations undertaken over a two-week period in two collection rounds (March 2010) identified 68 927 cubic metres of illegally tipped waste. The consequence of illegal tipping and littering is an additional burden, requiring waste workers to collect and remove the waste to authorised waste management facilities.


The regional waste sector employs tens of thousands of workers, mainly as unskilled labourers who carry out street cleaning, waste collection and sorting. Concerns have been raised over the lack of documentation kept by employers in GCCs on waste workers’ health. According to regulations, as expatriates entering the country, waste sorters employed to manually segregate the waste collected in communal containers are subject to pre-employment medical examination. However, if their occupation is not correctly registered they are likely to miss the proper medical examination and follow-up.


Segregation of materials for reuse and recycling is mainly carried out by the informal sector. At the regional level, about 10 per cent of total municipal solid waste – or about 6.3 million tonnes – was recovered this way in 2015. National amounts were estimated at around 12 per cent in Lebanon, 7 per cent in Jordan, 10 per cent in Saudi Arabia, and 10 per cent in UAE.


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