In an October 2011 report Abu Dhabis The National newspaper, citing the views of experts, labelled a plan by Sharjah to eliminate all waste sent to landfill sites by 2015 as ambitious.

Beeah, a local waste management company, had unveiled the target as it announced a Dhs100 million ($27.2 million) spending programme on new equipment and services.

We are on target, the companys chief executive Khaled al Huraimel confirms to The Gulf in a telephone interview last month. At the end of 2012 we achieved 52 per cent diversion from landfill, and last year we also launched the first large-scale residential recycling programme, which has helped raise awareness in the community, he adds.

A public-private partnership (PPP) between Sharjah municipality - which holds a 50 per cent share - and private sector investors, Beeah has come a long way since its 2007 incorporation. From just three employees then its workforce has now ballooned to 2,000, as have its assets and services. It is, says al Huraimel, probably the Middle Easts most integrated waste management company, selling recycled material from recovered waste, providing waste collection services and offering environmental consultancy services to companies in the emirate.

The PPP model works very well, and being fully integrated helps us succeed. Having control of the flow channel from collection to treatment to disposal makes our job easier, he says.

The companys Waste Management Centre in Sharjah has what it claims is the Middle Easts largest (and the worlds third-largest) material recovery facility, which processes roughly 900 tonnes of waste every day. Another plant on the site breaks down about 1,500 tonnes of construction and demolition waste every day, mostly for aggregate for roads, pavements and walkways, while about 4,000 old tyres are also converted every day into crumb rubber, used for example in flooring. There are also facilities to process medical waste, as well as shred car and light metal at the Centre. Meanwhile Beeahs Tandeef division collects more than 600,000 tonnes of solid waste in Sharjah every year, and manages a fleet of 1,750 pedestrian recyclers which are deployed across the emirate.

If Beeah is to be successful in achieving zero waste to landfill by 2015 in a country where there are currently few incentives - legal, financial or otherwise - not to dump waste in landfill, it will hope that a range of capital investments, partnerships and campaigns it is now engaging in Sharjah will pay off.

One is a waste to energy plant - currently out to tender - which al Huraimel says will generate clean power by incinerating waste which cannot otherwise be recovered or recycled. Another is the ongoing roll out of the Middle Easts first residential recycling programme, a litmus test for what could one day be a region-wide community programme led by Beeah. And the company is also launching a fleet of new waste collection vehicles onto Sharjahs streets this year which, says the chief executive, will help streamline the process.

A recent agreement with a subsidiary of French utility company Suez Environnement will also see new projects set up in the UAE to recycle plastics, wood and electronic scrap in Sharjah.

Al Huraimel admits that despite the companys own commitment to investing in arguably the Middle Easts most sophisticated waste management infrastructure, legislation and enforcement are largely out of its hands.

The UAE Centre of Waste Management in Abu Dhabi recently called for stricter rules and punishments for companies which did not have a suitable waste management plan, while al Huraimel was quoted recently in local media as saying that Beeah was discussing possible landfill fee increases with the municipality to try to curb the practice.

We need more legislation, he admits. There is still a lot of littering in public areas, illegal dumping is still happening, scavenging is still happening. There needs to be more government involvement to drive change and we are working very closely with them to draft new legislation on regulation, adds the chief executive.

Al Huraimel says more companies are taking waste management and compliance more seriously, and that Beeah is conducting an increasing number of audits on waste and environmental issues.

Beeahs environmental consultancy division works closely with the industries and companies in the Free Zones, for example, conducting environmental assessment studies and offering advice on how they can run their businesses in the greener way. We run collection services to these companies, collecting their paper waste for instance. We also offer training and development to companies wanting to play a more active role in this field.

The government is implementing legislation to regulate waste management from these producers, and our job is to motivate them and demonstrate how easy it is to recycle, he explains.

Having established its credentials - it won the Best Waste Management Company in the Middle East award in 2011 and 2012 - Beeah is now in the early stages of a strategic plan to expand in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) over the next two years, starting in Saudi Arabia.

Last month senior company executives were in the kingdom, meeting representatives from the public and private sectors in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, the countrys three biggest urban centres with populations bigger than Sharjahs one million.

We feel the experiences we have had in Sharjah will work elsewhere in the region. Saudi Arabia is the biggest market in the region - its demographics, waste issues and waste composition are similar, says al Huraimel.

The region as a whole is now more aware of the importance of change in relation to waste management. We believe we understand the regional market better than the international players.

As it expands regionally, Beeah will also leverage agreements with international waste management specialist companies, the intention of which will are to share knowledge on best practices. The company recently signed a memorandum of understanding with an agency in the economic affairs ministry of the Netherlands, a country considered one of Europes most advanced in terms of waste management. The sort of information and experiences on best practices gained from such collaborations, coupled with its own experiences in Sharjah, could serve Beeah well as it heads towards 2015 and a greater regional role.