United Arab Emirates (UAE) Plastic Waste Management Market Overview, 2028

Managing plastic garbage is a huge challenge for governments everywhere. The United Arab Emirates is going all out to ensure that its natural assets are carefully preserved. The purpose of the natural reserves is to safeguard the wildlife and marine and terrestrial biodiversity. It desires to keep its surroundings as pristine as possible. Modern society is inextricably linked to plastics. However, their safe disposal is a significant and extremely difficult issue. On average, 450 plastic water bottles are consumed annually by residents of the UAE1. The United Arab Emirates has the fourth-highest amount of bottled water consumption in the world in 2011, with 43 gallons per person on average. According to figures from the UAE's Ministry of Environment and Water, an astounding 11 billion plastic bags are used each year. This results in an overall annual waste of 912.5 kg. These figures show how widely plastic bags and water bottles are used in the UAE and how much plastic waste is produced as a result. Plastics are utilised all over the world in a variety of industries, including packaging, construction, and medical equipment. This is due to the strength, waterproofness, lightness, and versatility of plastics. However, because of certain socioeconomic conditions, some nations employ them more frequently than others. UAE has grown quickly over the past ten or so years. Both the population and the GDP per capita have increased by more than twofold as a result.

According to the research report “UAE Plastic Waste Management Market Overview, 2028, published by Bonafide Research, the market was valued over USD 500 Million in 2022. Based on service type, which comprises collection and transportation, recycling, incineration, and landfills. In 2020, the UAE's plastic recycling market had a volume of 0.84 million tonnes. All emirates' citizens are urged to gather certain wastes, which EEG then collects and distributes to designated recycling facilities. Glass, cell phones, paper, plastic, toner, and aluminium cans are among the materials mentioned. Plastic bags will be prohibited starting on January 1, 2024, according to the UAE. It comes after the imposition of a 25 fils fee and a ban on most bags in Abu Dhabi last summer in Dubai. The UAE government is working on amendments to legislation that could ban the production of non-recyclable plastic materials in Russia. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), both regular and expanded (EPS), and polyamides are the plastics with the highest use in Russia (PA, including PA66, or nylon). Depending on the type of source, which might be either residential, commercial & institutional, industrial, or other. In UAE, the greatest source of plastic garbage is thought to be industrial waste. For instance, packaging has a very short in-use lifetime (typically around 6 months or less).

In Abu Dhabi, the June 1 ban has already led to 87 million fewer single-use plastic bags being used, a cut of about 90 per cent. Sharjah had already planned a ban on bags from January 1, 2024. The ruling contains exceptions that include plastic bags made from recycled materials. It also includes plastics required in goods that are exported abroad. Plastic bags are one of the most problematic kinds of waste, polluting streets and waterways and harming birds and marine life. It takes decades to degrade and microscopic particles have been found inside the bodies of fish, birds and other animals. Last year, as the plastic charge was rolled out, Dubai officals said nine in 10 turtles and five in ten camels found dead had plastic in their stomachs. The UAE, which will host the United Nations climate summit Cop28 in November, aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The COVID-19 outbreak led to significant demand for plastic across industries such as food & beverage, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, etc., which negatively impacted the plastic recycling market due to disruption in the plastic collection. However, a rising number of initiatives by key stakeholders and government to reduce plastic pollution and increasing adoption of recycled plastic by manufacturing units are likely to propel the UAE Plastic Recycling market growth in coming years.
Some of the plastic waste management companies in UAE are Planet Green Recycling LLC, Infinite Waste Services LLC, Al Dhafra Waste Collection LLC, Eco Plastic Industries, Alpha Emirates LLC, SEHR AL NOJOOM PLASTIC WASTE RECYCLING LLC, Al Ghori Plastic Factory, YES Full Circle Solutions - Recycling Companies in UAE, Syrmat for recycling waste Tadweer, Alpha Emirates LLC and many more.

Considered in this report
• Geography: UAE
• Historic year: 2017
• Base year: 2022
• Estimated year: 2023
• Forecast year: 2028

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Manmayi Raval

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By Service Type
• Collection & transportation
• Recycling
• Incineration
• Landfills

By Source Type
• Residential
• Commercial & institutional
• Industrial
• Others

By Polymer Type
• Polypropylene (PP)
• Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
• High-density polyethylene (HDPE)
• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
• Polyurethane (PUR)
• Polystyrene (PS)
• Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
• Others

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The approach of the report:
This report consists of a combined approach of primary as well as secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and listing out the companies that are present in the market. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases, annual report of companies, analysing the government generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources primary research was conducted by making telephonic interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducted trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this we have started doing primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting consumers in regional aspects, tier aspects, age group, and gender. Once we have primary data with us we have started verifying the details obtained from secondary sources. 

Intended audience
This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations & organizations related to plastic waste management market, government bodies and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing & presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.