Qatar is committed to the recycling sector in Oman

Qatar has recently set its sights on Oman. In this case, the objective is an investment of 200 million euros for the construction of a tyre recycling plant in the Omani country. 

Construction work on the recycling facility will begin in the first half of 2023 and the infrastructure will be located in Sur Industrial City, an industrial estate in the Gulf of Oman located 150 kilometres southeast of the Omani capital Muscat, according to the European Rubber Journal. Construction work will take about two years. 

In an official statement, officials of the industrial complex said a deal worth around 205 million euros had been initialled with Al-Fairuz Projects and Investments to establish a rubber powder production plant in the area.

The facility will be established on an area of 230,000 square metres and will adopt "state-of-the-art" tyre recycling technologies, said Abdulqadir bin Salim al-Balushi, general manager of Sur Industrial City, as reported by ERJ. "The tyre recycling project is expected to generate 212 job opportunities, 75 % of which will be for Omanis," he said. No further details were given on the plant's processing capacity.

This is a good example of a commitment to environmental protection. The tyre recycling activity is part of the circular economy strategy, a very topical concept in policies aimed at the reuse of materials and the consequent protection of the environment. Most countries and many large companies are committed to environmental protection and the circular economy in order to reuse materials and stop the exploitation of certain ecosystems.

There is a global fight to protect ecosystems and recycling helps in this endeavour. The circular economy is about making use of existing materials and thus not creating more waste by making use of used materials. 

In this case, used tyres can be given a second life and turned into other products such as footwear, flooring for sports facilities or playgrounds, or even back into tyres by using the rubber.

Oman is a nation on the Arabian Peninsula with a terrain that spans deserts, riverbed oases and long coastlines on the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman and is situated between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the economic giant of the Middle East. 

The Gulf country is strategically located in the Middle East and has a population of 5 million. Its economy is fundamentally based on oil and gas, but it is seeking greater diversification, as other important countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are doing. Currently, the great challenge for these Arab countries in the region is to develop other economic sectors in order to avoid a heavy dependence on the fossil fuel market. Various areas such as tourism, renewable energies, new technologies and other alternative industries are being targeted by these countries in order to diversify their economies and avoid dependence on oil and gas. 

Oman is also on this path and proof of this is the development of the recycling sector. As exemplified in this case by the commitment to tyre recycling together with investment from Qatar. 

In this way, the new Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said has made an important commitment to carry out a structural reform of the country's economy, as well as to maintain good relations with its neighbouring countries, which allows for greater cooperation and an influx of investment.