Photo by Abdul Basit © The Peninsula
As various government organisations are adopting green practices to promote sustainable development, a private Qatari company is helping people get rid of waste paper by placing around 1,000 recycle cages across the country.
Elite Paper Recycling, a modern factory located in the New Industrial Area, is the largest paper factory in Doha which enjoys an aggregated production capacity of 4,500 tonnes per month.
The company is not only collecting old waste paper from a number of shopping malls and other companies but has also placed around 1000 recycle cages across the country, which are helping residents and in particular shopkeepers get rid of waste paper and cartons with the assurance of it that they are being recycled locally.
“We are the only factory in Qatar that recycles all types of paper from A4 to carton boxes even folders and laminated paper,” Amr Rageh, Director of Elite Recycling Paper Director, told The Peninsula.
“We manufacture Kraft paper with this paper and cardboard waste which may be used for many products such as card board boxes, tissue boxes, inner layer of beds, core rolls of toilet paper etc. We are providing this recycled paper to a number of companies here in Qatar and the rest is exported to the GCC countries,” Amr Rageh added.
Rageh said that the waste paper was not only being collected from various organizations and through recycle cages but Elite Paper Recycling also used to collect it from landfills, dumpsters, garbage-and-waste-baskets.
He said that the owner of Elite Paper Recycling factory, Abdulla Ibrahim Al Sowaidi had a go green initiative. “Caring about the cleanliness of the country, EPR will do its part by keeping waste paper and carton out of the street and will help protect the environment by reducing the number of trees being cut down.”
Rageh said that recycling of waste paper and cardboard boxes would help reduce pollution in the country. “It helps keep an ecological balance and gives strength in the global war against warming.” He said that currently factory was recycling 70-80 tonnes of paper per day but it had the capability to recycle 150 tonnes of waste paper per day which amounts to 4500 tonnes per month.
The Director of EPR said that the export of waste paper and carton was causing a problem.. “Owing to this export of waste paper, we are compelled to import it to fulfill our requirements. I will ask the authorities to stop export of waste paper from Qatar,” he added.
Highlighting other eco-friendly benefits of paper recycling, Rageh said: “Recycling paper conserves natural resources, saves energy, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and keeps landfill space free for other types of trash that can’t be recycled. Paper that is produced from virgin raw material uses far more energy and water than if it is manufactured using recycled paper. If paper and card are sent to landfill, it rots and in the process emits methane.”
He said that a number of companies were recycling their paper-waste through EPR like Al Meera, Galaxy Carton Factory, Grand Hypermarket, Hempel Paints, Ooredooo, Quality Hypermarket etc. As many as 150 companies and 70 schools are currently availing EPR services.
Rageh told The Peninsula that EPR was also providing a secure destruction/disposal and processing of all confidential or sensitive paper through a guaranteed mechanism.
On future plans of the company, he said that EPR had the plan to establish another big recycling facility in Qatar that would be able to recycle all recyclable goods like plastic, glass etc.
