The sole concern of most private firms is to improve their profit margin year on year. Tadweer has to run a large waste management and recycling plant for the entire emirate, while continuing to help to promote environment awareness programmes across the country.

The firm’s educational campaigns are not the result of its BOOT contract with Dubai Municipality, but they are integral to its business. Without greater public awareness, all of the start-up recycling firms in the emirate whether public or private will struggle to make profit.

Tadweer is heavily reliant on such awareness schemes. It would be easier to sort and manage the municipal waste if the refuse were separated out by residents and industrial units before it arrived at the plant at Warsan. Education can improve the situation. However, the recent scheme with UCD to set up a Dubai-based college with an environmental studies programme will take some time to make any impact.

Only 6-10 per cent of the waste from households and the construction sector is recycled across the UAE

Enforcement by the municipality is also an issue for the firm. Municipal waste can still be dumped at landfills relatively cheaply or free of cost nearby in Abu Dhabi and Oman. It is hard to create a financially viable recycling sector in Dubai when such options are available to the public and industry. Without specific legislation and enforcement the recycling sector will struggle to take off. Tadweer’s fortunes are closely linked to government action on this problem.

Yet despite these challenges Tadweer’s joint venture with the municipality also places it in a strong position for growth in the future. Not only can state backing provide the necessary capital investment for more treatment and sorting lines at Warsan, but also it is clearly in the interest of Dubai to advertise and market the need for the firm’s waste management and recycling services.

The vast commercial and industrial developments in the country and the rise in population have increased demand on the state’s resources and required Dubai to invest in environmental and pollution control projects. Companies such as Tadweer are clearly well placed to benefit from the urgent need of the emirate to manage and sort its waste.

In May, at a regional waste summit in Dubai, a study completed by the UN Environment Programme found that the UAE produced 22 per cent of the 22.2 million tonnes of waste produced by the GCC in 2009.

Only 6-10 per cent of the waste from households and the construction sector is recycled across the UAE compared to 70 per cent in some European countries.

The scale of the challenge to educate the local population in Dubai is clear. And how the municipality meets this challenge will directly affect Tadweer’s future business.

However, if awareness campaigns and education programmes gear up sufficiently over the next few years to tackle this problem, the plant at Warsan has more to offer than simply managing and recycling the waste it receives. If it can increase its power generation capabilities, it might supplement the government’s increasing electricity needs. Also, the RDF and soil produced by the facility at Warsan will significantly aid the cement and agricultural and real estate sectors in Dubai respectively.

Like other newly created environmental waste and management firms in Dubai, Tadweer’s future prospects will depend on the level of state success with its recycling and awareness campaigns.

If these are successful in educating the population over the next few years, the plant at Warsan could play a more diversified role in managing waste in Dubai.