05 February 2016
DOHA: Qatar Rail targets 100 percent reuse of the excavated waste generated from its projects, says an official.
"The project targets 100 percent reuse for excavated waste and less that 10 percent waste for landfill," said Dr Mark Evans, Environmental and Sustainability Manager, PMC Major Stations Department at Qatar Rail.
Dr Evans yesterday spoke on "Reducing and managing construction waste" as one of the featured speakers at the sixth edition of Waste Management and Recycling Summit which concluded yesterday at Intercontinental Doha The City.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the summit, Dr Evans stressed " We're not far off with our target actually. We're not quite 100 percent yet but we're 95 percent currently."
With its efficient waste management plan Qatar Rail has witnessed QR13m excavation savings, he said, adding thousands of tonnes of waste have been generated from all the excavations of tunnels and the projects taking place for underground stations.
"When Qatar Rail originally set up this project, they decided they won't just take all the excavated waste somewhere in the desert and forget about them. They were looking at ways in storing them on central sites and then bringing them back into these projects to use them for back filling while some of them are stored to be used in other projects in the future," he explained.
Big companies like Qatar Rail and other government entities involved in construction are keen on reusing and recycling excavation and construction waste, he observed.
"A lot of major companies like Qatar Rail and Ashghal are driving it on behalf of the government, which is massively supportive of this. As we see through Qatar Rail some of the demands that It's making in the stations are right up among the best in the world," he said.
"Qatar National Vision 2030 has environmental development built into it as one of its visions which the government wants to achieve," he added.
Qatar aims at raising the recycle share from 8 percent to 38 percent of solid waste, reducing landfill of 53 percent and converting waste to energy, according to Nispana, a global business intelligence solutions provider which hosted the Summit.
Despite government's keenness, not many companies in the construction sector especially the smaller ones are however uninterested on the idea.
"I think the smaller contractors - and this is true in any country - are always the last to buy into this process because they don't see any financial benefit," he said.
Dr Evans believe that through legislation and having an established infrastructure in place more companies would be encouraged to follow suit.
DOHA: Qatar Rail targets 100 percent reuse of the excavated waste generated from its projects, says an official.
"The project targets 100 percent reuse for excavated waste and less that 10 percent waste for landfill," said Dr Mark Evans, Environmental and Sustainability Manager, PMC Major Stations Department at Qatar Rail.
Dr Evans yesterday spoke on "Reducing and managing construction waste" as one of the featured speakers at the sixth edition of Waste Management and Recycling Summit which concluded yesterday at Intercontinental Doha The City.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the summit, Dr Evans stressed " We're not far off with our target actually. We're not quite 100 percent yet but we're 95 percent currently."
With its efficient waste management plan Qatar Rail has witnessed QR13m excavation savings, he said, adding thousands of tonnes of waste have been generated from all the excavations of tunnels and the projects taking place for underground stations.
"When Qatar Rail originally set up this project, they decided they won't just take all the excavated waste somewhere in the desert and forget about them. They were looking at ways in storing them on central sites and then bringing them back into these projects to use them for back filling while some of them are stored to be used in other projects in the future," he explained.
Big companies like Qatar Rail and other government entities involved in construction are keen on reusing and recycling excavation and construction waste, he observed.
"A lot of major companies like Qatar Rail and Ashghal are driving it on behalf of the government, which is massively supportive of this. As we see through Qatar Rail some of the demands that It's making in the stations are right up among the best in the world," he said.
"Qatar National Vision 2030 has environmental development built into it as one of its visions which the government wants to achieve," he added.
Qatar aims at raising the recycle share from 8 percent to 38 percent of solid waste, reducing landfill of 53 percent and converting waste to energy, according to Nispana, a global business intelligence solutions provider which hosted the Summit.
Despite government's keenness, not many companies in the construction sector especially the smaller ones are however uninterested on the idea.
"I think the smaller contractors - and this is true in any country - are always the last to buy into this process because they don't see any financial benefit," he said.
Dr Evans believe that through legislation and having an established infrastructure in place more companies would be encouraged to follow suit.
© The Peninsula 2016
