You bring experience from Australia and New Zealand. What lessons from those mature markets can be applied to the UAE?

In mature markets, policies and regulations are strong, but translating them into industry action takes a long time because of politics and red tape. What's different here is that the UAE's policy framework can be translated into action quickly. The UAE isn't on a slow trajectory toward maturity. It's accelerating fast, and the industry needs to keep pace: invest in infrastructure, adopt new technology, and move beyond collection into recovery and recycling.

You've spoken about wanting to "leapfrog" the UAE into an integrated circular ecoverse. What does that mean?

The traditional model is consume, use, dispose. Leapfrogging into an intergrated circular ecoverse requires the industry to move beyond collection and disposal into actively recovering material and channeling it back into reusable products. For instance, street furniture made from recycled wood and plastics, or food waste converted into high-grade compost. It's about treating waste as a valuable secondary material, not a commodity to be baled and shipped overseas.

What's the biggest shift you're seeing in Dubai right now?

Municipalities have a clear vision and are communicating it downstream. Now customers are coming to us directly asking for something different. That means solutions have to be bespoke rather than standardized; what works for an airport won't work for a residential facility. That shift toward customers actively seeking better solutions is the biggest change I'm seeing.

What's driving that shift, is it regulation, or something else?

Municipalities are driving policy, but the visible effects of climate change and rising costs from global instability are what's really pushing behavioral change. Regulation alone doesn't invigorate action, it's the combination that's moving people to ask, "Should we be doing this differently?"

Earlier this year, Dulsco Environment launched a consultancy arm. What's the vision behind it?

It's a dedicated advisory wing, and it's my passion project. Customers are actively asking us for solutions, so we built a specialized team comprising people with background in waste, operations, and strategic. It is focused purely on customer needs, not just sustainability reporting or ESG targets.  

Dubai has set a target of zero waste to landfill by 2027, brought forward from 2030. What's still needed to get there?

Source segregation. Until material arrives as clean as possible, some of it will always end up in landfill or waste-to-energy. True diversion means actually recovering material for reuse, and that depends on community participation in keeping waste clean at the source. 

Europe's regulation and infrastructure came earlier, forcing behavioral change over time. Is the UAE following that same path?

Europe's model was sequential: policy, then innovation, then investment, then infrastructure. The UAE isn't copying that; it's building on it, with all of those elements moving together. Partly, I think, because we don't have the luxury of time. I don't want my kids to inherit a landfill.

Where do you see the strongest growth for Dulsco beyond the UAE?

Right now, my focus is on strengthening our foundation in the UAE. Beyond that, Saudi Arabia has huge ambition and growth potential, though it's still catching up on policy and infrastructure. The wider GCC has similar pockets of opportunity. As an industry, we have a responsibility to take what we've built here to neighboring markets.