(6 September 2010)
Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), a master developer of leading tourism real estate assets within Abu Dhabi, in conjunction with the facilities management company Thiess Services Middle East, has designed and installed the UAE’s first purpose-built environmentally sustainable Waste Management Facility (WMF).
Located on Saadiyat Island, the new facility is now operational to receive the increasing quantities of building waste being generated from the construction activities taking place on the island. The WMF, which covers a total of three hectares (30,000 sq metres), segregates and recovers all valuable commodities from waste materials which would normally have been sent to landfills. The recovered commodities are then either reused on other construction projects on the island or made suitable for resale.
The new facility has been specifically designed to provide optimum waste recovery practices while being financially viable. It employs practical approaches to the management of industrial and commercial waste and to date has processed over 215,000 cubic metres of building waste, concrete and reject rock and has recovered over 199,163 cubic metres of reusable materials. The types of commodities typically salvaged include roadbase products, aggregates, plastics, paper, cardboard, wood, steel and aluminium.
Lee Tabler, Chief Executive Officer of TDIC, believes the new facility is another example of TDIC’s commitment to develop sustainable practices on all of its construction projects. “The introduction of the UAE’s first purpose-built, master community development Waste Management Facility, will have extremely positive benefits to the environment, as it will mean that less waste is required to be sent to landfill sites and even help us to reduce construction costs.
“At TDIC we take the issue of sustainable resources extremely seriously; and throughout all of our projects, from design to completion, we actively employ and implement sustainable best practice guidelines. This helps to ensure that all of the development projects that we undertake are sustainable, sympathetic to the environment and meet stringent environmental guidelines,” explained Tabler.
Richard Naylor, General Manager for Thiess Services Middle East said: “We are delighted to be partnering with TDIC on this project and we hope it sets a benchmark for waste management at other developments being carried out across the UAE.”
Thiess Services Middle East is renowned as a versatile, innovative and diverse environmental, facilities management and utilities contracting organisation. Its core business is facilities management, the management of waste materials and land remediation using its proprietary Waste Management System to provide sustainable solutions to all waste issues.