Qatar: Recycling aluminium

Recycling aluminium has been shown to provide major economic benefits. As a result, it is appropriate for the aluminium industry to identify, develop, and implement all technologies that will optimise the benefits of recycling. In Qatar, aluminium cans can now be recycled thanks to a COP18/CMP8 Doha legacy project. The first bulk recycling unit has been set up in the city centre, opposite the Ministry of Environment. The ambition is for the pilot scheme to be rolled out to become a nationwide programme.

As part of the launch, staff at the Ministry of Environment received information as part of a programme called Train the Trainer, to encourage recycling champions their employees.

In conjunction with the project, recycling bins have also been placed at various COP18/CMP8 Doha information pods around the city. Yellow circle bins for cans, which make recycling fun and easy to do at home. The move has been in response to the overwhelming community interest at the pods about wanting to increase recycling in Qatar.
Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the president of COP18/CMP8, said, "Climate change stands as one of our single largest long-term challenges. This is why environmental sustainability is one of the four key pillars of our 2030 National Vision, and hosting COP18/CMP8 is an opportunity to invest directly in helping to move things forward."

The bin can be found at pods in Landmark Mall, Villaggio Mall, City Centre Mall, Corniche Oryx, Corniche Sheraton Park, Katara, MIA Park, Souq Waqif, MOMA, The Pearl and Aspire Park.Recycling is the process of turning used waste and materials into new products. This prevents potentially useful materials from being wasted and reduces energy use, habitat destruction and pollution from raw material extraction. It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminium than it does to make it from raw materials and once an aluminium can is recycled it can be part of new can within six weeks.

The ambition of the Qatar National Development Strategy is to recycle 38% of solid waste by 2016 and the community is on board with wanting to reach the target. Preserving the environment for future generations is a value shared among Qataris and environmental awareness is part of the 2030 vision.

The use of the bins and the recycling station will be monitored, along with how much waste is actually recycled and how much energy has been saved. It is hoped that this information will be used to begin a community-wide recycling programme and to set national targets for the remainder of the COP18/CMP8 Presidency. COP18/CMP8 Doha would like to invite residents in Qatar to visit the information pods to discuss their ideas about recycling and to let them know about any recycling champions in Qatar.

There are a number of challenges to be met to create a “recycling-friendly” world. Among the key challenges are the following:

?Maximise recovery of used aluminium ??products and components for recycling

?Automate and optimise pre-sorting, ??shredding, and separation technologies, and make them broadly available

?Identify more useful by-products to ??handle elemental residual unsuitable for reuse in recycled metal, e.g. Fe

?Broaden the number of available ??aluminium alloys whose specifications will readily directly accept recycled metal and will perform well in high-quality, value added products

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