Visit to the BEEAH Group: delegation of private sector executives, invited by the UN Global Compact, on a parallel agenda to COP28 (Mariana Grilli/Exame).
The Beeah Group looks to the future with zero waste to landfills, a Net Zero agenda by 2050, and inspires Brazil with projects that combine technology and sustainability.
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates – Located in the emirate of Sharjah, an Arab holding company wants to change how the Middle East deals with waste management. In line with the Net Zero agenda of the United Arab Emirates by 2050, the organization’s goal is for waste as we know it to cease to exist.
The headquarters of the BEEAH Group is like an oasis, with desalinated water fountains in the desert, where the design of the undulating dune-like building was conceived by architect Zaha Hadid. EXAME visited the nine-thousand-square-meter building, alongside a delegation of private sector executives invited by the UN Global Compact on a parallel agenda to COP28.
Upon entering the building, the feeling is of a futuristic environment, powered by solar panels and meeting LEED Platinum standards – a green building certification program. It is from there that the company develops nine pillars of action, from metal recycling to education, all coined in sustainability and digitization.
Almas Muhammad, HR specialist at the BEEAH Group and guide for the businessmen, says that 90% of the UAE’s waste was destined for reuse in 2023. “It is the highest diversion rate ever achieved by any company in the Middle East, and we are on the verge of reaching 100%,” he states.
Another investment by the BEEAH Group is in the shredding and recycling of metals, including vehicles. “This facility will receive cars that have reached the end of their lifespan. We will separate the recyclable components of the car, and then we will shred the metal, all of it in 60 seconds,” says Muhammad.
In the view of Carlo Pereira, CEO of the UN Global Compact in Brazil, the immersion of the private sector around the facilities in Sharjah is an inspiration for Brazil’s transition to a sustainable and integrated economy – which involves the reformulation of waste management.
According to him, recycling in Brazil is only done on about 6% of the waste. Transforming this liability into a business is a task to be carried out between the private sector, the public sector, and the third sector.
“Government incentives and regulations are useless if they are not aligned with the demands and desires of civil society. At the same time, it is also useless for this to be separate from the interests of the private sector. We need all three actors in society working together,” he says.
After separation, recycling, and processing, one of the purposes of ‘waste’ is to generate energy. In the country, according to her, there are about 300,000 tons of non-recyclable waste annually, which can be converted into electricity to supply 28,000 homes. For this, the intention is to turn landfills into solar parks, which will have the capacity to produce 120 megawatts of electricity.
The daily processing of cellulose and carbon-based waste also feeds the biomass-dedicated installation to generate alternative fuel for industrial manufacturing.
For the future, BEEAH wants to go further and produce green hydrogen from plastic and wood waste, in partnership with the UK-based hunook Sciences and Japan-based Airwater.
Participant in the Brazilian delegation, Fabrício Fonseca, Business Development Director of Ambipar, highlights the planning of the United Arab Emirates regarding the transformation of waste into energy.
“Up to 15 years ago, they were sending almost 100% of the material to landfills. Now, they are working with the goal of, by 2025, having no more disposal and still retrieving what has already been buried for processing. That is the outline of the environmental solution,” he says.
As a solution for Brazil, Fonseca argues that the culture of bidding for urban waste treatment should go hand in hand with technological advancements.
“The company that provides a solution to valorize or reuse the waste is the one that should win the bid, not just the one with the lowest value. Thus, in the future, we can have landfills channeling gas, generating biomethane and energy,” he says.
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