Environment, Circular Economy & Waste current GCC market status and evidence monitor

Executive summary

Evidence

Findings

• Saudi Arabia’s implementing regulations require a MWAN licence or permit for the exact waste-management activity, the supporting documents listed for that route, payment of the application-review fee and any licences required by other competent agencies. A technology sale to a licensed operator and the foreign supplier’s own collection, transport, trading or treatment activity are different regulatory cases.
• Dubai Law 18 of 2024 prohibits waste-management activity without the relevant Dubai Municipality permit. Administrative Resolution 34 of 2026 then requires a commercial licence or initial approval, the applicable environmental and health conditions and the technical manual for the precise activity. The normal permit term is one year; that term does not establish project duration, customer approval or material access.
• Dubai’s retained fee schedule lists AED 1,000 per activity per year for issuing or renewing multiple waste-related permits. The amount is one authority fee, not a complete operating budget: commercial licensing, environmental study, vehicles, facilities, storage, fire protection, monitoring, insurance, disposal and renewal may remain separate.
• The UAE’s extended-producer-responsibility framework was described by MOCCAE in December 2024 as being prepared under Article 5 of Federal Law 12 of 2018 and Cabinet Decision 39 of 2021. Policy development is not proof that one uniform operating scheme, fee, covered-product list or take-back obligation is already active across every emirate and material stream.
• The Tahweel marketplace covers metals, plastics, paper, wood, electronic waste, glass and rubber and offers timed auction, partial auction, immediate sale and immediate purchase formats. MOCCAE states that commercial trading requires a valid trade licence. Platform access does not prove lawful title, material classification, permitted movement, specification, quantity, payment or buyer acceptance.
• The UAE recycled-aggregate decision applies to construction and demolition waste used in road and infrastructure projects and requires sorting, authorised handling and laboratory quality checks. Its published use provision is capped at 40 percent where material is available; it must not be converted into a compulsory minimum, a product approval or demand for a specific recycler.
• be’ah’s 2024 report records 3,090.89 tonnes entering the cited PDO-zone composting process and 290.62 tonnes remaining as output, described as a 90.6 percent reduction. The same scope records 3,971.97 tonnes diverted through segregation and treatment and 17,888.56 tonnes sent to engineered landfill. The figures have different treatment boundaries and cannot be combined into a national recycling rate.
• The Oman report separately records 2,500 tonnes of end-of-life tyres recycled for energy production, 317 dumpsites closed cumulatively and 42,000 square metres rehabilitated during 2024. These figures identify operating and remediation needs, but not a current procurement package, buyer or available budget.
• Oman’s Environment Authority waste-management licence is mandatory for transport, collection, treatment, storage, reuse or final disposal of hazardous waste and for final disposal of non-hazardous solid waste. Its current service catalogue publishes a two-year renewable term, a one-working-day complete-file processing target, OMR 50 for hazardous-waste management and no licence fee for non-hazardous final disposal. The time and fee apply to this licence only; they do not cover incorporation, environmental permitting, Civil Defence, site, vehicles, treatment assets or customer qualification.
• The Oman file changes with the activity. Hazardous-waste treatment needs site coordinates, a treatment plan and environmental permit; storage adds site, process and waste details; transport requires Civil Defence permission and a waste-management plan; reuse requires its process plan and environmental permit. Final disposal of non-hazardous waste needs a plan, site coordinates and environmental permit. The licence also carries a semi-annual reporting obligation, so a one-day service target cannot be represented as one-day operating readiness.
• Oman’s current Class B environmental-permit route materially changes with location. Inside PEIE industrial estates, approved free zones and industrial ports, the published complete-file route is OMR 375 and 30 minutes; outside those locations it is OMR 750 and 30 working days and calls for an environmental-impact study. Both permits are renewable for three years. The location distinction affects evidence, cost and sequence and must be resolved before a site budget is quoted.
• Oman’s Class C route publishes OMR 150 and ten working days where no environmental study is required, or OMR 600 and 30 working days where one is required. Class A requires an EIA prepared by an Environment Authority-approved consultancy, publishes OMR 1,500 and a 30-working-day complete-file target. These are authority fees and assessment targets, not total development cost or guaranteed permission.
• Qatar’s MECC green-cement book retains distinct 2030 targets: account for all waste materials, recycle 15 percent of municipal material, close and rehabilitate all unsanitary landfill, use 35 percent recycled material in construction and reach 30 percent circular procurement in public infrastructure. They are policy targets, not observed completion rates.
• The same MECC research estimates approximately 50,000 tonnes of dry sewage sludge generated annually and documents laboratory development and full-scale site trials for non-structural products. A research result or site trial still requires approved specification, feedstock control, production quality, project acceptance, liability allocation and commercial offtake before scale.
• Qatar’s published development-project environmental-permit route requires the responsible government or administrative letter, approved site maps, company commercial registration or establishment evidence or the title deed, project-owner identity and representative authority; an environmental-impact-assessment route also requires the terms of reference. Hukoomi lists no authority fee for that service, but the record dates from 2022 and must be reconfirmed at filing. “No fee” is not no study, consultant, site, construction, mitigation, inspection or operating cost.
• The Ministry’s current Assessment and Permits Department separates environmental approval from the later operating permit: it reviews permit and impact-assessment files, inspects establishments and issues operating permits only after the applicable environmental conditions are met. Its Hazardous Chemicals and Waste Department separately regulates and assesses licensing for trading, importing, exporting, storing, transferring and packing hazardous chemicals and waste and determines treatment or disposal conditions. A development permit, operating permit and hazardous-waste activity authorisation are therefore not interchangeable.
• Abu Dhabi’s July 2025 Tadweer service guide separates the waste-transportation contract, waste-disposal permit, material-destruction permit, utility or infrastructure no-objection certificate and violation-resolution route. A company should map the specific transaction and licensed provider rather than treating a general Tadweer account as full operating approval.
• Bahrain’s municipality reported approximately 2,200 tonnes of waste collected daily, around 1.1 kilograms per person, with household waste at 72 percent and construction waste at 8 percent. This is a dated operating observation with a stated material mix; it is not a current addressable-market forecast or proof that the construction share is recoverable.
• Bahrain separately reported completion of 300 recycling and waste-treatment collection centres and the start of recyclable-material collection in January 2025. The record proves network deployment, not centre-level throughput, contamination, recovered-product quality, sales or an open supply package.
• Bahrain’s hazardous-waste-transporter service publishes a BHD 50 fee per vehicle and a five-working-day complete-file target. Cross-border movement is a different route, with published complete-file targets of 30 working days for hazardous and 14 for non-hazardous waste. Commercial registration, vehicle approval, waste classification, movement permission, destination acceptance and physical transport remain separate evidence states.
• Kuwait’s Environment Public Authority services portal separates development-project environmental permitting, qualification of environmental activities, chemical and ozone controls, asbestos disposal and cross-border hazardous-waste approvals under the Basel Convention. A general company registration or environmental certificate cannot be represented as approval for every waste stream or project.
• The Kuwait EPA company-registration route distinguishes environmental consultancies, laboratories, waste environmental services and mobile air laboratories. The selected service category defines the evidence route; appearing in the portal is not proof of project eligibility, waste possession, transport permission, facility approval or award.
• Kuwait Environment Law No. 42 of 2014, as amended by Law No. 99 of 2015, maintains specific controls for hazardous, medical, municipal and sludge waste and requires prior authority permission for defined movements and activities. The actual material classification and current implementing requirements must be retained before contracting or shipment.
• Waste-diversion and landfill pressure translated into a specific material, concession, site or treatment decision
• Water scarcity and reuse where input quality, treatment duty, end use, storage and continuing monitoring are defined
• Decision-chain evidence: Regulator or municipality classifying the activity, material, movement and permitted destination. Record the named institution, accountable role, current need and dated route into the decision.
• Decision-chain evidence: Material, site or asset owner controlling the verified baseline, volume, composition, access and operating change. Record the named institution, accountable role, current need and dated route into the decision.
• Evidence gate: Current activity, environmental, site, material, transport, storage and treatment permissions.
• Evidence gate: Representative feedstock composition, contamination, moisture, volume, seasonality and legal control.

Method and limits

How this brief was produced

Horizon integrated official sector authorities, multilateral or research sources and the reviewed GCC sector dossier. The brief tracks market structure, commercial signals and evidence gates without inventing a regional market-size number.

Original sources