SHARJAH // Dumped cars that used to gather carpets of dust on sandy lots and back streets can be put to better use after the UAE's first car-recycling plant officially opened on Wednesday.
The plant will extract valuable metals and help to recycle or reprocess plastics, upholstery, cables and mechanical parts. It will also greatly reduce the amount of landfill.
The plant became operational in October and has since been undergoing tests. It has already processed about 350 old cars but its capacity is much larger.
Its shredder, the main piece of equipment for processing car bodies, has a capacity of 60 vehicles an hour, said Darker El Rabaya, director of waste processing at Bee'ah, the plant's operator.
About 11,000 vehicles reach the end of their lives each month, studies by the company show.
"There are a large number of vehicles in the UAE that are being scrapped every day," said Najib Faris, chief commercial officer of Bee'ah.
"This is the only facility today that can deal with end-of-life vehicles in the country. We would encourage any insurance company, dealer or government department to use this service."
Old vehicles used to be sold to scrap dealers, who would salvage spare parts and sell the rest of the car on the international market.
At the new plant cars are first dismantled manually and many of their parts, such as tyres and plastics, are recycled at centres already operating at the Bee'ah compound.
Workers separate mechanical parts such as engines and transmission systems, which the company hopes it can soon sell to international companies that take them apart and re-assemble them.
Bee'ah is negotiating with several such companies, said Mr Faris. He said one advantage of this approach is that re-assembled spare parts come with a warranty.
Workers at the compound also manually separate cables, which will be handed to electronic waste traders, as well as cushioning and foam that can be recycled by local companies.
Windows are finely ground and used for landfill cover.
When the car's body has been shredded, machines separate non-metallic parts from valuable aluminium and steel.
Recycling the metals is environmentally and financially beneficial, said Mr Faris.
"It does have a business case, it is a commercially viable plant," he said. "However, the most important goal for Bee'ah is to reduce waste to landfill.
"Recycling consumes a lot less energy and a lot less water than producing virgin materials."
While the facility is now technically ready, a key issue for the next few months is to ensure a steady supply.
Bee'ah is in talks with government departments to ensure unclaimed old vehicles in car impounding areas are handed over for recycling.
Car insurance companies and old car dealers are other partners of interest.
vtodorova@thenational.ae
* additional reporting by Yasin Kakande
