A recent World report, ‘Waste Management in the Middle East and North Africa’, presented stark statistics revealing the growing waste crisis in the region.  

The region produces over 155 million tons of waste annually - a figure expected to double by 2050 if no action is taken.  According to the report, the Middle East and North Africa region generates more waste per person than the global average.  

Interestingly, the report finds that even a modest shift can make a big difference. “A one% reduction in waste generation could save the region up to US$150 million annually." The World Bank estimates that poor waste management costs the MENA region approximately US$7.2 billion annually.  

Waste management experts in the Middle East, speaking to R. Keerthana, break down the root causes behind the region’s waste crisis and its continued challenges.   

Collection vs treatment  

The numbers come as no surprise to Ashly Alex, CEO, Tajmee'e, Tadweer Group. “ What the World Bank has reported in dollars and tonnage, we see it in operational reality.” The key reason being that systemic problems such as high dependency on landfills, unrecovered material streams, and infrastructure were built for disposal, not for recovery.   

The report points out that while waste collection rates are relatively high (nearly 80% on average), less than 10% of waste is recycled, and more than two-thirds are mismanaged. Alex highlights a fundamental challenge in the region’s waste management landscape: while collection is largely an infrastructure issue, recycling depends on building a fully integrated ecosystem. “You can develop and engineer a waste collection infrastructure relatively quickly. Whereas, building the sorting facilities, securing offtake agreements, the commodity markets, the public behavior, and the regulatory influence and incentives that make recycling economically viable, will develop only as a result of meticulous effort by all the stakeholders.” Across MENA, he notes, investment has primarily focused on developing collection infrastructure.  

With the waste volume expected to double by 2050 in the MENA region, Alex recommends a federal awareness mandate and structure that delivers the same message consistently across all seven Emirates. He says, “Infrastructure without behavioral alignment is a redundant asset. A material recovery facility cannot provide quality resources if what is delivered to the facility is poorly sorted or contaminated. A circular economy cannot close its loop if producers, consumers, and municipalities are not operating with a shared understanding of the system they are part of.”  

For Alex, this awareness should start in schools, be communicated in residential communities, and be looped into all types of businesses. “Awareness programmes should not be a one-off campaigns, but a continuous, structured pillar of our national waste strategy.”  

Challenges vary across countries 

According to Richard Davidson, Director of Waste, Sustainability & Environment at KEO International Consultants, the challenge varies across countries, but is broadly driven by a mix of capacity, policy, and execution gaps. “If I had to prioritise them, the region’s biggest issue is the execution of infrastructure development, followed by capacity,” he notes. 

While most MENA countries have already established legal frameworks and national strategies for solid waste management, reflecting clear policy intent, the implementation gap remains significant.  

Andre Sleiman, Senior Advisor, Roland Berger Middle East, echoes the sentiments of Davidson, as he says, “From North Africa to the GCC, waste management performance varies widely depending on income levels and state capacity. High‑income GCC countries are converging toward global best practice.”  

He points out that Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and to some extent Oman, are shifting from disposal‑led, linear systems toward more integrated, circular models. This transition is supported by more granular master plans, increased private sector participation, and policy instruments such as ambitious landfill diversion targets and, in the case of the UAE, EPR pilots. Qatar has taken a different path by prioritizing energy from waste through incineration.  

Despite these progresses, source segregation remains a major challenge across the GCC. “Elsewhere in the region, particularly in middle- and low-income or fragile contexts, collection rates are lower, disposal is often uncontrolled, and institutional capacity is weak.” 

Project bankability  

The bankability of waste and recycling projects in the region ultimately comes down to a few critical factors. According to Davidson, these include guaranteed feedstock, predictable revenues, and robust contractual frameworks. The report highlights that municipal budgets still bear much of the financial burden, while cost recovery mechanisms remain weak underscoring the need for more sustainable financing models. “For investors and lenders, confidence is built when projects are supported by gate fees or service payments embedded within long-term concession agreements,” he says, adding “Recycling projects, in particular, are rarely viable on the sale of recyclables alone, although shared revenue models can help incentivize improvements in feedstock quality and operational efficiency.” 

Equally important is the issue of risk allocation. “Many projects are technically feasible but fail to achieve financial closure due to unresolved risks or misaligned responsibilities.”  For instance, composition risk is best managed by the public authority, while offtake risk for recyclables should be shared, given the government’s role in developing local markets.”  Ensuring that contractual structures reflect a fair and balanced distribution of risk is therefore essential to unlocking investment and advancing projects across the region, he notes.  

Critical gaps 

According to Sleiman, a key challenge in the UAE and Saudi Arabia is about financing the sector and improving service quality across the value chain, so that waste is not only collected but effectively captured and valorized. Today, financing remains largely public. “The priority is to shift the sector toward greater private investment and make waste management financially sustainable, if not profitable.” This requires operationalizing the “polluter pays” principle through tariffs and gate fees: in simple terms, making it more expensive to landfill mixed waste and cheaper to separate and valorize it.”  

In many other MENA countries, the gaps are more fundamental. Waste strategies and master plans are outdated, incomplete, or absent; enforcement is weak, funding is scarce, data is poor, and the business environment is unattractive to private operators. Governments typically fund the entire system. As a result, policy attention is absorbed by maintaining basic service continuity often regardless of quality.  

The report points out that the region’s per capita waste generation is around 0.9 kg/day. However, Sleiman says the average value hides major differences. “The observed trend is that waste generation rises sharply with income. High‑income GCC countries generate significantly more waste per person than poorer countries in the region – as much as 1.4–1.8 kg per person per day, compared with roughly 0.6–0.9 kg per person per day in middle- and low-income countries across the rest of MENA.” 

Organic waste management  

The report states that around 57% of municipal waste in the MENA region is organic, with food waste emerging as a major economic and environmental concern. 

“This is not just a regional issue. Governments should prioritize source-segregated organic waste, supported by locally appropriate treatment,” Davidson says. “Diverting organic waste at source would significantly reduce contamination across other waste streams, making segregation more efficient and improving the quality and value of recyclables.” 

Such an approach would unlock significant value, reduce contamination, and enhance the efficiency and quality of recycling. It would also enable the valorization of a major resource, delivering substantial environmental impact, he adds.  

Laying out the data, Sleiman notes that food waste shows relatively little variation across income levels in the region, consistently accounting for a significant share of municipal solid waste. In the GCC, it comprises around 35–47% by weight, while in middle- and low-income countries the share rises to 45–60%. “Despite these differences in composition, systems to manage food waste remain weak across most MENA countries, with the bulk still ending up in landfills or open dumps. While some GCC governments are moving toward source separation, composting, and anaerobic digestion in line with global practices, separate collection of organics is still limited, and overall treatment capacity remains insufficient.”   

“From what we see, food waste is less about lack of awareness and more about how systems are designed,” says Aliyu Mohammed Ali, CEO and co-founder of Ehfaaz.  

Across hospitality, retail, and events, there is a structural tendency to overproduce, driven by expectations around abundance, availability, and service standards. Procurement practices further compound the issue, as businesses continue to prioritize volume over demand precision. 

This systemic design makes surplus almost inevitable. Yet once it is created, the pathways to manage it remain limited. “There are very few viable channels to redirect surplus food efficiently,” he explains, pointing to constraints around storage, shelf life, and underdeveloped redistribution infrastructure. In such an environment, disposal quickly becomes the default option rather than the last resort. 

For Aliyu, the solution lies in intervening earlier in the chain. “The most effective way to reduce food waste is to intervene before the waste is created, instead of managing it after the fact,” he says. On the supply chain side, this means working closely with procurement teams and using data to better align purchasing with actual consumption. Businesses that adopt data-informed forecasting and portion planning are already seeing meaningful reductions in overproduction. 

At the consumer level, smaller behavioral nudges are proving equally impactful. “Portion control, guided serving, even pricing mechanisms where you pay more if you waste food.. these approaches work because they are embedded into the experience,” he notes.  

However, prevention alone is not enough. “When surplus is inevitable, there has to be a defined recovery pathway,” Aliyu stresses. Systems for redistribution, repurposing, or processing must be in place so that food does not immediately become waste. The most successful models, he adds, are those that integrate these processes directly into operations rather than treating them as add-ons. 

Looking at the bigger picture, he emphasises the need for coordinated action. “Reducing food loss at scale requires alignment between policy, infrastructure, and execution,” he says. Governments play a key role in setting clear guidelines, enabling redistribution, and supporting recovery infrastructure, while businesses must move beyond compliance and actively embed waste reduction into their operating models.