Solid waste management is a huge global concern. The GCC has countries with the largest solid waste output in the world, being among the richest countries Kuwait produces about 120 million tons of solid waste each year. High standards of living and the fast economic growth have been the major causes of the high solid waste dispensation of about 1.5kg of solid waste per capita daily.

Kuwait has an enormous number of landfills which are used to hold the large number of solid waste. There are 18 landfills but 14 have been closed and four are still in operation. These landfills have been causing Kuwait major health and environmental problems because they produce dangerous gasses like methane and are therefore plagued with large fires. Due to the huge urban development residents have moved to the edges of the landfills causing danger to the public health.

Kuwait is about 17,830sq km in size with about 18sq km covered with landfills. Hundreds of hectares are filled with these wastes. About 90% of domestic waste is sent to these mines implying that more and more landfills will be required for these wastes. All kinds of waste are sent into these landfills: domestic, municipal, food residue and plastics all are dumped together in these land fills indiscriminately.

Most landfills in the past 20 years have been close due to the close proximity to the residents and the operation problems. The landfill have been closed before reaching their due usability mostly because of the poor disposal methods and the health problems they cause the residents and the fires they bring especially for the hundreds of residents who live on the edges of the landfills.

With the high population growth and the large number of waste being deposited daily, the landfills will soon be too many to manage and this will bring even more health problems for the people of Kuwait. Authorities estimate that the needed technology to contain the waste problem in Kuwait will take KD 70 million.

The Director General of Kuwait Municipality, Ahmad Al-Sebeeh, estimated the domestic recycle at KD 100million per year. This shows that with waste recycling Kuwait can gain a huge amount of profit and preserve the environment while taking care of its people’s health. According to Kuwait Times, the World Bank has warned that Kuwait is among the highest solid waste producers in the world.

In the city of Sulaibiya, there exists a landfill that contains over 70million tyres. The landfill is so huge and contains so many wheels it can be seen from space. It is said that the tyres are not from Kuwait only because there is a company that charges other countries substantial amounts of money to dump the wheels there too. The landfill is so hazardous in April 2012 there was a huge fire at a tire dump near Al Jahrah that scientist suspect was fueled by over 5 million tyres. The fire was so big hundreds of fire fighters, soldiers and employees of the Kuwait oil company all helped each other to put out the fire. A month later there was another fire at Amghara scrapyard, which took fire fighters from four different stations to contain the fire. Tyre fires are difficult to put out because they cause a lot of smoke that often carries toxic gases from the rubber compounds.

These landfills are becoming hazardous because:

· When the rainwater falls on the uncontained open grounds with the waste, it mixes with substances in the garbage dump like battery acid and chemical solvents from home detergents and industrial chemicals. The water mixture then soaks into the soil and the underground water and the chemicals are then transferred to people and animals.

· There is only so much land in the earth for landfills to be constructed every 1.1million tons of solid waste.

· The cost of constructing landfills, treating the water and lining systems to prevent leachate which is any liquid that passes through any kind of matter and suspended solids, is very expensive.

· As a health issue to both people and animals, even if the leachate does not soak into the soil and water underneath, it can cause health problems since the water forms pools from which birds can drink and other animals close to the landfills go to look for food which is contaminated by the chemicals, and that is how diseases start to spread.

· Not forgetting how visually unpleasant the site of these landfills are and how they produce horrible smells to those around them.

· The fires that occasionally happen can cause major harm to those living around them if not contained soon enough.

· Methane gas produced has been found to trap more of the sun’s heat than carbon dioxide causing plants to die of too much of the sun heat.

Recycling is also a problem because in Kuwait it is not possible to fund the recycling project with taxes and tipping because the tipping charges at the landfills are low and the transport costs are dependent on the landfill location. This means that any recycling company must compete with any company in the market and must produce products as good in quality are those produced not through recycling.

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The type of waste that is dumped into the landfills in Kuwait is MSW, which is municipal solid waste that include all solid waste durable and non-durable, organic and in-organic collected from residential (households and dwelling units), commercial (retail, wholesale and manufacturing companies), institutional (offices, hospitals and educational centers) and industrial sources. Residential wastes include: leftover pesticides, reactive, flammable and non- flammable products, cleaning products and automotive supplies. Institutional waste includes; paper, medical waste like infectious agents and radioactive material, paper wear and yard trimmings. Industrial waste include, metal, solvents and pesticides, and mining waste it includes materials moved to gain access to the minerals.

The government is treating the solid waste as waste rather than as a resource. It is therefore underfunding the recycling projects. The solid waste management is held down by poor planning, insufficient funds, lack of skilled man power, technical and operational decision making deficiencies, lack of stakeholder’s cooperation and lack of waste management legislations. Even though there are rules about pollution, they are rarely implemented. The waste management companies are only owned and operated by the government therefore discouraging the private sector and entrepreneurial participation in improving the waste management program (Zafar). Minister of Oil and State Minister for National Assembly Affairs Dr. Ali Al-Omair say he is impressed by the significant progress the country is making. However he says that more can be done and hopes that more progress will be seen in the next two years and approval of more laws on the environmental issue.

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To solve the solid waste problem, save its people and animals, and the environment as a whole, the Kuwait people and the government must wake up to the reality that is recycling. Recycling is re-using or re molding of already used material into another product. Recycling helps:

· save up to 20% of energy that would have been used to create new products

· Reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfills

· Reduce greenhouse gases emission which contribute to climate change

· Conserves natural resources like timber, water and minerals

· The recycling companies create new jobs

· To generally reduce pollution

Our company Al-Bali recycling solutions hopes to bring this difference to the people of Kuwait.

List of Illustrations

These sites include Sulaibiyah, Kabed, Al‐Qurain, Shuaiba, Jleeb AI Shuyoukh, West Yarmouk, AI Wafra among others.

Amghara Tyregraveyard

This is an image of the vast tyres that are put in the ground, visible from space.

This diagram shows that Kuwait comes in the tenth place for air pollution.

Synopsis of Executive Summary

Recycling is the process of re-using old or waste material into new products. Recycling has become a popular way to keep conserve and protect the environment, to reduce energy consumption, protect the ozone layer, preserve natural resources like plutonium, reduce pollution and promote sustainable use of resources. With the increase in global sensitivity about pollution and how the radioactive waste has destroyed the ozone layer and the environmental impact of the destruction, there has been increase need to recycle waste and old material into reusable products. And the waste in the landfills too need to be divide according to type of waste to enable easy identification of the material that can be recycled and the material that can rot and be fertilized.

Our Company’s Objectives

The Al-Bali recycling solutions intend to inform people more about the benefits of recycling both to the people and the environment as a whole. It believes that the solid waste chaos can be settled if more people are aware of the benefits of recycling products instead of throwing them away. We also want to get the governments support both financially and in sensitizing the people.

The government by informing the people about and helping in the dumping of waste according to types; plastics and polythene should not be dumped together with other materials like food residue and agricultural waste. The papers too should be dumped separately so they can be used by us and companies like ours to make tissue paper and other materials. The government should also give the recycled products the same importance as the materials and products made from new materials as opposed to recycled material.

By giving the recycled products the same importance the people will be willing to buy the recycled material also allowing companies to grow and recycle even more waste material. The worldwide slogan of reuse, reduce recycle should also be used in Kuwait to reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills and therefore the pollution and health issues as a whole.

Methodology

In the research about the solid waste danger in Kuwait the following methods were used:

1. Observation

The major research method used was observation. We observed the waste disposal in Kuwait, how the trash is poured indiscriminately and how it is affecting the people, the animals, the air, the soil and the underground water. The situation was observed for a period of six months in which many animals died for eating from the dump site and the people in the surrounding area got sick because of drinking water from sources near the dumpsite. Typhoid and amoeba were seen to be the major illnesses affecting the people living near the area.

2. Questionnaire to the people of Kuwait

A questionnaire was sent out to 20 people living at the edges of Al-Qurain landfill. The questionnaire seek to find out the challenges of living in that area, the solutions the residents think could be done and find out if the residents have been informed about recycling and re using. In the questionnaire it was found out that most of the resident think recycling can be a good idea but is unsure of the government’s reception to the idea and if it can be done since there is so much trash everywhere in the many landfills, and that collected on a daily basis.

3. Interview

An interview was conducted between us and the Minister of Oil and State Minister for National Assembly Affairs Dr. Ali Al-Omair. Where he commended the significant improvement Kuwait has achieved in terms of environmental performance. However, he agrees that more can be done to sustain and improve that growth.

Appendix

Daily mail reporter. (2013). World’s biggest tire graveyard: Incredible images of Kuwaiti landfill

site That is home to SEVEN MILLION wheels and so huge it can be seen from space

available

From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337351/Worlds-biggest-tyre-graveyard-Incredible-images-Kuwaiti-landfill-site-huge-seen-space.html

E.K. Lauritzen, C. de Pauw (2004).Disaster Planning, Structural Assessment, Demolition and Recycling New York published by CRC Press.

George Scott. (2012). Problem with landfills available on November 2014 from http://organic- recycling.net/uncategorized/the-problems-with-landfills/

Green prophet (2012). Trash Talk in the Middle East- Interview with Salman Zafar available Nov 2014 from http://www.greenprophet.com/2012/11/trash-talk-with-salman-zafar/

Kuwait Times (10thNov 2014). Solid waste a growing problem in Kuwait available from

http://news.kuwaittimes.net/solid-waste-growing-problem-kuwait/