00:14Every year, the world throws away resources it could use again. And that waste is choking
00:19landfills and warming our planet. But here in the UAE and also in Uzbekistan, that story is
00:25starting to change. Waste is being turned into power and rubbish into a resource. This is
00:31what the future of consumption can look like if we choose it. It all begins on the sorting line.
00:38We are looking at the primary sorting line at BIA's Waste Management Complex in charge.
00:43High volume commingled and commercial waste is processed continuously using automated
00:47screens, magnets, eddy currents, ballistic separators and Optida sorters.
00:54Increasingly, the sorting is done not by hand, but by machine.
00:58AI vision and optical sorters detect material at the polymer level in milliseconds, while robotics
01:04pick at speeds human sorting cannot match. This allows us to recover lightweight and complex items
01:10that were previously lost to landfills, pushing bail purity above 95%.
01:14This is what the future of the circular economy looks like in practice. Sharjah now diverts the
01:21vast majority of its household waste away from landfill. Over 1.5 million kilograms of waste moves through
01:29this facility every single day. Almost nothing is wasted. What comes off these lines is given a second life.
01:39We recover high demand industrial feedstocks. Plastics, PET, PPE, LDP as well as HDPE are converted into pallets and flakes
01:48for new packaging and consumer goods.
01:51Metals, on the other hand, are melted down into structural steel and new beverage cans. Non-recyclables are sent to
01:57waste to energy, where we produce electricity for up to 28,000 ohms per year.
02:03And whatever cannot be recycled is not buried. Some of it is burned to make power.
02:10I'm here in the control room of the Sharjah waste to energy plant, which was the first of its kind
02:15in the region.
02:17It turns everyday household items into electricity, powering thousands of homes.
02:23The plant's engineers explain why a modern city can no longer rely on landfill.
02:28Waste to energy converts non-recyclable waste into valuable energy, reducing landfill dependency while recovering value from residual waste.
02:38And it matters, they say, far beyond this plant.
02:42It matters because sustainable cities cannot rely on landfill. Waste to energy transforms an environmental challenge into a long-term
02:51energy solution.
02:53For those who built it, there is a real pride in what it represents.
02:57I'm extremely proud. This is the kind of infrastructure that delivers lasting environmental, economical and societal value for future generations.
03:09Every circular economy begins with ambition. In Uzbekistan, that ambition is being put into action.
03:14A nation moving to transform how it matches waste on a scale few countries would attempt.
03:29Uzbekistan generates roughly 15 million tons of household waste a year.
03:34Government figures suggest only around 5 to 6 percent is recycled or processed by specialist companies.
03:41Most waste, therefore, remains outside the recycling system.
03:45The country's response combines landfill reform, recycling and waste to energy.
03:50These approaches address different parts of the waste stream and they do not all play the same role in a
03:56circular economy.
03:57The first challenge is the most basic, collecting waste safely and controlling what reaches landfill.
04:0450 years of waste went into the ground just over there.
04:08This facility replaced it last year. 24 hectares, compacted waste and proper containment.
04:14Up to 2,500 tons of waste arrive every single day from across the capital.
04:20But the most interesting part is what happens next.
04:25Organic material buried without oxygen produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
04:32It can escape from landfill or be captured and used as fuel.
04:37In the building of the old polygons, there was a huge increase of gas and methane.
04:42And now, on the old polygons, there is also a project for the extraction of this gas and methane and
04:47production of energy.
04:50Gas capture can reduce emissions and generate electricity.
04:54But sealing a landfill does not answer risk.
04:57Masane and polluted liquid, known as leachate, can persist for years and require long-term monitoring.
05:06We�kak our people are doing a new concept of all the waste that is continuing to issue.
05:15We want to make a new channel for our customers.
05:17We will help it to the next few days.
05:20We will help our citizens to be able to find a new product.
05:25We will be able to fill these materials.
05:25Alongside efforts to improve landfill management,
05:28Узбракистан is expending waste to energy incineration.
05:31Government is rolling out a nationwide network head to the政府.
05:34of waste to energy plants, with six currently under construction and additional projects planned.
05:41The site will be processing 1500 tons of Samarkand's waste every single day
05:47and sending the electricity straight to the national grid.
06:07That is the government's case. In the waste hierarchy, however, burning waste for energy
06:13is classed as recovery, not recycling. It can reduce landfill volumes and generate power,
06:19but it also produces emissions and ash, as the environmental performance will depend on what is
06:24burned, the pollution controls used, and how the residues are managed. Beyond the large projects,
06:30private operators have also entered waste collection. At the household level, sorting remains a major
06:46obstacle. In 2024, zero waste distributed 10 000 bags for residents to separate recyclable waste.
06:54Only around one percent were returned sorted. It's not a national measure, but it illustrates
06:59the difficulty of changing household habits.
07:17The projects are moving ahead, but the circular economy depends on more than new infrastructure.
07:27Whether household ordering can keep pace remains an open question.
07:33From the UAE to Uzbekistan, this proves that clothing the loop on waste isn't just possible,
07:39it's already happening, whenever people choose to act. That's all for this episode of Earth Now.
07:45Join us next time as we uncover more about the work underway across the planet to safeguard it.
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