State’s losses appear to be large and growing

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 19: While the nations of the world are racing to achieve the greatest possible benefit from their waste, by “recycling” it and reusing the damaged materials to produce new profitable materials, in light of the successive industrial and technological development, Kuwait seems uninterested and far from achieving that ambition, reports Al-Qabas daily. The state’s losses appear to be large and growing, as a result of the costs of burying or burning waste, due to the severe damage this process leaves to the environment and human health.

The Atlas of Waste Management in Kuwait, issued by the Environment Public Authority recently, revealed that Kuwait spends on waste collection and disposal about 285 million dinars annually, within a ceiling of 7,500 tons of waste collected daily, and that 50% of the country’s waste is disposed of in landfills, not ergonomically designed. The Atlas, a copy of which was obtained by Al-Qabas, pointed out that recycling operations in the country are carried out selectively, so that what is extracted from sand and slabs in the drums goes to fill the landfills and cover the waste layer there, which means the loss of valuable resources, and being affected by negative and harmful environmental effects.

Household

The Atlas indicated that the annual volume of household waste in Kuwait is estimated at 1.4 million tons, and that Farwaniya Governorate is the highest among the governorates in the volume of waste with a total of 415,419 tons, with an individual share of 0.94 kg/day and that 25.8% of household waste in Kuwait consists of organic materials, plastic, paper, cardboard, packaging materials, glass, metals, and others.

Waste in Kuwait represents 15 times the weight of the volumetric quantitative capacity of all 33 water towers in the country, and on average each citizen contributes 0.85 kg of household waste. The Atlas stated that with regard to solid waste, citizens also generate waste outside their home, whether at work, restaurants or while shopping, and thus the daily amount of waste reaches 1.6 kg, which is much higher than the global average of 0.74 kg, and slightly higher than the average of the GCC countries which is 1.5 kilos. The sources pointed out that 1,000 tons of waste in the country is recyclable, mostly plastic, at rates of up to 14%, and cardboard, then glass, metal and wood, in addition to electrical and electronic waste at 1%.