Qatar to set up 1st battery recycling factory

The first battery recycling factory with a facility to handle 4,000 metric tones of battery waste every year is being set up in Qatar's Mesaieed Industrial City. The first phase of the "Rassas Battery Recycling Factory" is expected to be ready by January next year. It aims at helping to keep Qatar free from industrial waste and poisonous contaminants. Announcing this at a briefing at the Doha Sheraton Hotel, the promoters said that the company is being established in line with the directives of the recent Basel convention where the importance of disposing of hazardous wastes was one of the main highlights of the discussions, the Qatari daily (Gulf Times) reported Tuesday. Qatar, one of the participants at the Basel Convention, has decided to embark upon the task of disposing of hazardous waste in such a way that it would be useful to the country’s industrial development in the long run, said a company official at the meeting. The initial work on the project started in November 2010 after appointing teams to study the project’s viability, feasibility and environmental effects. The promoters said the teams carried out intensive studies on the elimination of hazardous wastes. They said the production capacity of the factory is based on the current strength of the local market, which is close to 4,000 metric tones a year of used batteries. Based on an expected annual growth of 5%, the figure could cross 10,000 metric tones a year in 2030, they said. The project would cost about QR20 million in two phases on buildings, warehouses and recycling and production lines. It is jointly financed by Qatar Development Bank and Qatar Islamic Bank.