It’s difficult to imagine that an empty cereal box, a banana peel, or a deflated football could contribute to powering your home. Yet in Dubai, nearly half of all discarded waste plays a role in household energy. Much of it ends up at a plant operated by the Warsan Waste Management Company. “Around 45% percent of Dubai’s total waste comes to this facility,” says Tim Clarke, the company’s CEO.
However, since the plant produces power, replacing the burning of fossil fuels, Warsan Waste Management believes the overall result is positive. “We emit CO2, but also we generate 200 megawatts of electricity that’s not having to be produced by a fossil fuel source, which is primarily gas in the UAE,” says Clarke. “So saving around 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.” Facilities such as the one in Dubai also implement a few extra steps to maximize resource extraction.