The plastics recycling opportunity in the Arabian Gulf region is vast and largely untapped. GPCA estimates that approximately 10 million tons of plastic waste is generated in the GCC each year, but only a modest 10% of plastic and metal waste is recycled, reused, or recovered on average.
The GCC is currently among the least affected regions by plastic pollution in the world and with low levels of municipal plastic waste volume. Nevertheless, the region is home to significant hydrocarbon reserves and is a major producer and exporter of petrochemicals, which are used to produce plastic. As such, the GCC countries have a responsibility to take action to address the negative impact of plastic waste and pollution, both domestically and globally.
In this episode of the GPCA Podcast, Priya Sarma, Chairperson of the newly established Circular Packaging Association (CPA) and Head of Sustainability & Corporate Affairs, Unilever Middle East and Khalid Moqbil Algarawi Commercial Executive Director, SIRC, — in conversation with Dalal Alhooli, Member, GPCA Youth Council and Business Monitoring & Planning Analyst, Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) – discuss the challenges and opportunities within the plastics waste recycling market and the way forward to transforming the regional take-make-dispose approach into a closed-loop circular model.
Together they address some of these pressing issues including:
- The size of plastic waste in the region and the value it can unlock
- The barriers and enablers to achieve a circular economy
- The potential of EPR for the GCC region
- The role of PPPs and collaboration