Politics

KRG to establish recycling plants across Kurdistan as part of cabinet's agenda

"One of the significant threats to the Kurdistan Region’s environment is the absence of an adequate waste and recycling system."

Mustafa Shilani 2019/12/08 18:56

kurdistan Kurdistan KRG Environment Recycling

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Municipalities and Tourism stated on Sunday that the government is planning to establish recycling plants at a district and sub-district level across the Kurdistan Region.

Sasan Awny, the KRG’s Minister of Municipalities and Tourism, said one of the significant threats to the Kurdistan Region’s environment is the absence of an adequate waste and recycling system, noting that enforcing effective waste management infrastructure is one of the KRG’s priorities.

Awny insisted that recycling is “of extreme interest” to Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, who “is planning to establish recycling factories across districts and sub-districts in the Kurdistan Region.”

The statement confirmed that establishing an adequate waste and recycling structure is one of the ministry’s fundamental projects.

The ministry is “looking to expand the existing recycling factories that are currently being constructed in the Duhok and Sulaimani governorates, and also in the Akre and Amedi districts, which will process waste in a manner that does not pose a threat to the environment,” he explained.

According to Awny, the ministry will work with an international company to build recycling factories according to global standards in areas across the autonomous Kurdish region that do not have a recycling system.

In recent years, several local organizations in Kurdistan have launched campaigns to encourage recycling by placing separate garbage bins in schools and universities as a first step, hoping the initiative becomes a trend elsewhere across the region.

Although the Kurdistan Region produces thousands of tons of reusable waste, it has not adequately benefited from it and ends up losing a lot of money by selling and exporting the various waste to neighboring countries only to repurchase it later as raw material and for 10 times the price it was sold.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany