The Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, announced today that it has reached the final stages of constructing the first construction and demolition waste recycling facility in Riyadh. The facility is scheduled to begin operations by the end of next July, followed by a series of additional facilities to be implemented later.
The operation of this facility marks the first step towards implementing the comprehensive waste management strategy in Riyadh and achieving a set of recycling objectives. The most prominent of these objectives is diverting 60% of construction and demolition waste away from landfills by 2035 and transitioning towards a circular economy model.
The construction and demolition waste recycling facility is the first to be developed and built under the memorandum of understanding signed last year between the National Waste Management Center, Riyadh Municipality, and Sark Company to initiate integrated waste management and waste recycling activities in Riyadh.
The new facility is located in Al Khair District, north of Riyadh, and was built on a designated land area of 1.3 million square meters by Riyadh Municipality. Once operational, the facility will process approximately 600 tons of construction and demolition waste per hour from Riyadh, achieving a recycling rate of over 90%. Advanced technology will be utilized in the construction of this facility, and it will be equipped with innovative mobile equipment that can be transported between future recycling sites and reconfigured to accommodate various local capacity needs.
On its part, the Riyadh Municipality will organize and direct all contractors to deliver their construction and demolition waste to the new facility. The facility will include a specialized reception center for accepting the collected waste, where the waste will be sorted and processed in a sustainable manner to produce four different sizes of recyclable aggregates. These aggregates will be stored and used as raw materials for construction projects, roads, and infrastructure throughout the kingdom.
The new facility will start receiving waste from mid-June and will be fully operational by the end of July. This initiative will contribute to improving the cleanliness of the capital and protecting the kingdom's natural resources by removing and treating 20 million tons of scattered construction and demolition waste in the neighborhoods and streets of Riyadh. Additionally, the facility will convert and recycle 5 million tons of collected construction and demolition waste annually, which is currently being disposed of in informal landfills, illegal waste dumps, or old sites facing capacity and control issues.
On this occasion, Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf, the Secretary of the Riyadh Region, affirmed that the Municipality will continue to provide necessary support and facilitate all procedures to achieve the desired outcomes of the project. He emphasized that the project represents an important step towards a more advanced and sustainable environmental system.
He explained that the facility project is one of the leading and qualitative projects with direct economic and environmental returns, and it has a close connection to the targets of Vision 2030 in the Kingdom. It will support the continuous urban growth in the capital by investing in waste and recycling.
On his part, the CEO of the Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), Jérôme Vincent, stated: "We are working with the Riyadh Municipality to build the first modern facility for recycling construction and demolition waste, which is the first within our future plans to construct multiple recycling facilities in the Kingdom."
Engineer Vincent added, "We will employ the latest international practices in waste management. The construction and demolition waste recycling facility in Riyadh has been equipped with state-of-the-art systems and technologies that will enable SARK to recycle larger quantities of construction and demolition waste in the future. The new facility will also employ over 160 employees. Furthermore, the company will implement an advanced system to track and monitor waste collection operations."