RIYADH: Environmental management firm Veolia Near & Middle East has joined forces with Emirates Waste to Energy to operate and maintain the Sharjah waste-to-energy plant, touted to be the first in the region. A joint venture between Sharjah environmental management company Beeah and Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar, Emirates Waste to Energy can process 300,000 tons of municipal waste every year along with producing 30 megawatts of low carbon energy — sufficient enough to power up to 28,000 homes and offset up to 450,000 tons of CO2 emissions per annum, according to a press release. Sharjah currently has a 76 percent landfill waste diversion rate and upon completion of this project it will enable that to be increased to 100 percent, thus making Sharjah the first zero waste-to-landfill cities in the Middle East. “As part of our efforts to promote ecological transformation, Veolia is dedicated to diverting domestic waste away from landfill and to supporting the UAE’s push for green energy. This project helps achieve both goals, while being aligned with the UAE’s ambitious environmental vision,” said Pascal Grante, CEO of Veolia Near & Middle East. Khaled Al-Huraimel, Group CEO of BEEAH Group, said the new venture with Veolia and Masdar is “another exciting development in our mission to shape a zero waste to landfill, net-zero emissions future in Sharjah and the UAE.” He added: “Over the next 25 years, we will continue to build on our integrated waste management and zero waste-to-landfill ecosystem through the Sharjah Waste to Energy Plant.” The waste management complex in the plant will recover a majority of the recyclable material from the waste it processes. Later, the remaining waste will be thermally treated, and the heat produced from the process will be applied to a boiler, which will produce steam and drive a turbine to produce electricity, the press release noted. Mohamed Jameel Al-Ramahi, CEO of Masdar said: “We will work together to ensure the smooth operation and maintenance of the region’s first commercial-scale waste-to-energy facility, supporting Sharjah and the UAE in achieving their zero-waste and net-zero ambitions.”