The Dubai-based Al Rostamani Group, one of the UAE’s oldest and largest conglomerates, has announced the launch of a new initiative, Emirates Recycling LLC, dedicated to the recycling and recovery of the city’s construction and demolition (C&D) waste.

Emirates Recycling, a joint venture between Al Rostamani Group and the Italian General Work infrastructure development company, is a build, operate, own and transfer (Boot) project in cooperation with Dubai Municipality.
The Emirates Recycling plant, built at a cost of over Dh65 million ($17.7 million) and located in the Al Lusaily area on Al Ain-Jebel Ali Road, will have the capacity to convert the more than eight million tonnes of construction waste material generated in Dubai annually into usable road and construction base aggregate. The first facility of its kind in the entire Middle East, Emirates Recycling began its activities in April and will operate at full capacity by September 2007.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, acting director general of Dubai Municipality, said the civic body handled 10.5 million tonnes of C&D waste in 2006. C&D waste, he added, made up 75 per cent of the total waste generated in Dubai every year.
Dubai Municipality will require all construction companies operating in Dubai to send their C&D debris to Emirates Recycling. The new plant will ensure that there will be no stockpile of incoming waste material, and will also reduce reliance on freshly quarried rock material.
Marwan Al Rostamani, chairman of the Rostamani Group, said the group was founded on a mission to serve the community, a legacy he stressed had continued ever since. Comprising 13 disparate businesses involved in industries ranging from automobile and heavy equipment sales and service to trading, financial services and IT, it has net assets of over $2.5 billion and provides direct and indirect employment to more than 3,000 people. Its partners include industry giants such as Suzuki, Renault, Nissan Diesel, Tata, Thomas Cook, Michelin and Castrol.
According to vice president Hassan Al Rostamani, Dubai alone generated between 2,500 and 3,000 trucks worth of construction and demolition waste every day, equivalent to more than 35,000 tonnes of C&D debris.  “More than half of this debris can be recycled and reused in the construction and development sector itself, and that is what Emirates Recycling will strive to achieve. In essence, Emirates Recycling will use the building blocks of Dubai’s past to ensure its sustainable future.”
He said the business model would be replicated in other emirates. The state-of-the-art Emirates Recycling plant will operate to international best practices and match its products to UK, US and European quality standards, said the company’s managing director Roberto Biasizzo. The plant is designed to receive, sort, separate, crush, sieve and otherwise process the city’s concrete, asphalt and cement C&D debris and turn it into aggregate materials of three different sizes for use in road-base construction, as base material for ready-mixed concrete elements and for landfill.
“Emirates Recycling will provide developers and contractors with a readily available, high-quality, low-cost and eco-friendly product,” Biasizzo said. “There are no downsides to using recycled aggregate: it is as robust, safe and high-quality as current market alternatives, if not more so.”