A NUMBER of locations for recycling have been identified in a new plan to revamp the Hafeera landfill site, according to a top minister.
Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf was informing the Southern Municipal Council about their 2020 proposal for an e-waste unit.
He said a comprehensive plan for the landfill site is in its final consultative stage between the Urban Planning and Development Authority and the Supreme Council for the Environment.
“Multiple plots will be allocated for general and specific recycling at the revamped site in Hafeera,” he said.
Mr Khalaf said once the necessary details were complete and approvals issued, the recycling projects would be open to private investors.
The proposal for the e-waste unit – presented by council chairman Bader Al Tamimi – comes as tonnes of e-waste have piled up in Hafeera.
This includes mobile phones, computers, printers, TVs and kitchen appliances – most of which are dumped as they have short life cycles and few options for repair.
Mr Khalaf said a specialised company was authorised in 2020 to recycle e-waste, but a full-fledged factory would help the country tackle the issue better.
“We have to explore multiple options to deal with electronic litter, which is increasing rapidly. We have an authorised company recycling it, now we will work towards setting up a hi-tech factory,” he said.
“Depending on the success of the project, we will plan more recycling units in the future.”
Council services and public utilities committee chairman Abdulla Abdullatif urged the government to speed up the recycling factories project.
“The area in the past was a wasteland and home for just industrial sites, but now it is seeing vast urbanisation, with hundreds of families moving into the new Khalifa Town,” he said.
Mr Al Tamimi, who participated in the session from Kuwait, pointed out that around 30 per cent of rubbish disposed daily in Hafeera constitutes electronics and electrical appliances, which contain toxic elements.
“Mobile phones, TVs and computers have lead and mercury and they cannot be crushed or buried in the ground. Its plastic parts also take years to decompose.”
Toxic litter can leach into the environment, contaminating soil and groundwater, and posing public health risks.
“Since the outbreak of Covid-19, there has been more reliance on technology with people forced to work from home. Laptops and mobile phones enhanced connectivity and were most in demand during this time.
“Bahrain imported computers worth BD8.8 million in the first three months of 2021, which means old ones were thrown out, adding to the mounting e-waste.”
Around 1.6m tonnes of waste were dumped at the landfill site in Hafeera in 2019 before the outbreak of Covid-19.
Domestic waste was at the top of the list with 546,822 tonnes, construction waste came in second at 487,940 tonnes, followed by commercial and industrial waste at 397,544 tonnes, and agricultural waste at 127,350 tonnes.
A record 54m tonnes of e-waste was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21 per cent in five years, the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor report found.
The 2019 figure is equivalent to 7.3kg for every man, woman and child, though use is concentrated in richer nations.
The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population, and only 17pc of it was recycled in 2019.
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