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 are already in a new place where the solution will not return space.
05:11We have to fill, in a new building, we are getting connected to our new building.
05:15We are getting connected.
05:25Alongside efforts to improve landfill management,
05:28Uzbekistan is expanding waste to energy incineration.
05:31Government is rolling out a nationwide network of waste-to-energy plants, with six currently under construction and additional projects
05:40planned.
05:41The site will be processing 1,500 tons of Samarkand's waste every single day and sending the electricity straight to
05:49the national grid.
05:50These plants are designed for all the region and will provide the right utilization of the waste-to-energy plants,
05:58which are currently in the state, and return them to the economy by generating electricity and receiving electricity.
06:20Ice, emissions, and ash, as environmental performance will depend on what is burned, the pollution controls used, and how their
06:27residues are managed.
06:29Beyond the large projects, private operators have also entered a waste collection.
06:34In 2021 the President had a statement of the pandemic to renew their consumers and to grow this business, not
06:41the details.
06:44At the household level, sorting remains a major obstacle.
06:47In 2024, Zero Waste distributed 10,000 bags for residents to separate recyclable waste.
06:54Only around 1% were returned sorted.
06:57It's not a national measure, but it illustrates the difficulty of changing household habits.
07:21The projects are moving ahead, but the circular economy depends on more than new infrastructure.
07:28Whether household sorting can keep pace remains an open question.
07:33From the UAE to Uzbekistan, this proves that closing the loop on waste isn't just possible, it's already happening.
07:40Whenever people choose to act.
07:42That's all for this episode of Earth Now.
07:44Join us next time as we uncover more about the work underway across the planet to safeguard it.
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