Dr Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, Director of the Center for Environmental and Municipal Studies (Pic: Abdul Basit)
After a successful experiment of using recycled construction waste aggregates in building road, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment is ready with regulations and specifications for recycling construction waste and its usage, said an expert.
“The recycled aggregates are cheaper by upto 50 percent compared to the imported ones, it is environmental friendly and would contribute significantly in reducing the dependency of the country on import”, said Dr Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, Director of the Center for Environmental and Municipal Studies. Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Peninsula, Al Kuwari said that everything related to law and specifications required for recycling construction waste are ready. He added that only setting up of a recycling plant was needed to utilise a huge stockpile of construction waste available at Rawdat Al Rashid.
Recycled construction waste aggregate could be used as material for making pavements. “There is an estimated 40 million tonnes of construction waste in Rawdat Rashid and if it is recycled we can get about 25 million tonnes useful aggregates – gabbros and limestone,” he added. Regarding the experiments on recycled construction waste, Al Kuwari said “we built a road called “green road” from recycled waste at Rawdat Rashid three years ago and now the road is in good condition despite being used by trucks carrying huge loads”.
“We did this experiment first time in Middle East and North Africa and registered this invention in an international magazine in the name of Qatar,” he said. “The research work had started in 2010 when we came to know that there was huge stockpile of construction waste at Rawdat Rashid, said Al Kuwari adding that studies and experiments had been conducted in Qatar and UK form 2010 to 2015 looking for the best way to utilise it in place of exporting expensive aggregates..
Regarding the import of aggregates, he said that if we start recycling the construction waste that heaped up at Rawdat Al Rashid, the import of aggregates would be reduced over 30 percent. “Qatar needs about 30 million tonnes of aggregates per year now, said Al Kuwari and we can produce about 10 million tonnes materials annually through recycling the construction waste,” he added.
Speaking on the response of private sector for recycling the waste, Al Kuwari said that some plants are being set up to recycle the construction waste.
Speaking on the requirements for setting up recycling plants, Al Kuwari said that there is a center for waste recycling at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, the interested candidates can approach to complete the procedures required for setting up plant and picking up the constriction waste from Rawdat Rashid for recycling.
Ministry of Municipality and Environment announced on Thursday that it has amended the Qatar Construction Specifications (QCS) allowing uses of recycled construction wastes.
