Ahead of its official opening, His Excellency Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, the UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, visited Enviroserve’s new 280,000 sqft electronic waste processing plant, The Recycling Hub, in Dubai Industrial City.
After being received by Enviroserve Chairman, Brian Wilke, Group CEO, Stuart Fleming and Project Director, Harbinder Singh, Dr. Al-Zeyoudi, accompanied by His Excellency Eng. Saif Mohammed Al Shara, Assistant Undersecretary for the Sustainable Communities Sector, and Eng. Yousif Al Rayssi, Director of the Municipal Affairs Department, at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, were treated to a private tour of the facility which features state-of-the-art Swiss technology.
The Recycling Hub is a key piece of infrastructure in the Middle East and Africa’s e-waste recycling industry and supports the UAE Vision 2021 and the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030.
Dr. Al-Zeyoudi’s visit came in the wake of his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos where he participated in a panel discussion on “Closing the Loop on Electronics”, alongside Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglo American, Dr Naoko Ishii, CEO & Chairperson of Global Environment Facility, Ellen MacArthur, Founder and Chair of Ellen Macarthur Foundation, and Jeroen Tas, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Royal Philips. The panel tackled the issue of electronic waste & provided recommendations on implementing public-private circular electronics solutions throughout the product life cycle, from design to reuse.
Echoing several of the key points from the World Economic Forum, the two groups discussed electronic waste challenges, regulations, targets, and importance of cooperation between the public and private sectors.
“It was our great pleasure to welcome His Excellency to The Recycling Hub and show him the new facility. It is the culmination of Enviroserve’s 15 years of experience in pioneering the E-waste Industry in the UAE and throughout the MEA region and we hope that we can continue to support the UAE in reaching its recycling goals.”
– Stuart Fleming, Group CEO, Enviroserve
“As we become increasingly integrated with technology and artificial intelligence, E-waste will continue to become a growing concern for the world. If e-waste continues unabated, its volume is projected to amount to 120 million tons annually by 2050.
E-waste contains toxic substances such as lead and mercury thus proper processing is essential to ensure that these heavy metals are not released into the environment. Besides harmful materials, e-waste also comprises a definite amount of valuable resources such as gold, silver, copper, aluminium, etc. E-waste is considered a rich source of raw materials as it contains deposits of these precious metal estimated to be between 40 and 50 times richer than ores mined from the earth, according to the United Nations. Hence, if e-waste is recycled instead of dumping into landfills, a lot of valuable material shall be recovered.
The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment has provided continuous support for the establishment of The Recycling Hub, one of the largest e-waste treatment facilities in the region, which will ensure the sound management of the e-waste generated in the UAE.”
His Excellency Eng. Saif Mohammed Al Shara, the Assistant Undersecretary for the Sustainable Communities Sector at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment
Each year, close to 50 million tons of electronic and electrical waste is produced globally and only 20% is formally recycled.
The Recycling Hub is the world’s largest integrated electronic waste recycling facility and is in its final stages of commissioning. It will be officially launched on March 20th.
Founded in Dubai in 2004 by Stuart Fleming and Brian Wilkie, Enviroserve is a pioneer in the electronic waste and refrigerant gas recycling industries in the Middle East and Africa. In 2018, Enviroserve soft-opened The Recycling Hub – the region’s largest integrated electronic waste recycling facility featuring brand protection and IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) services. Enviroserve is headquartered in Dubai with 8 branch offices in Angola, Georgia, Kenya, Lebanon, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.