Waste management

ACWA Power has an integrated waste management procedure to manage hazardous and non‑hazardous waste. This ensures minimal impact on the environment and that local and international regulatory requirements are satisfied. The ideal way to reduce the stress on disposal systems is to reduce the amount of waste that is produced, so our emphasis is on reduction, reuse and recovery before disposal.

To develop our integrated waste management system, we have identified the level or levels at which the highest values of individual and collective materials can be recovered, thereby saving material production, resource cost and energy.

ACWA Power’s waste management involves identifying, segregating, packing, labelling, storage, transporting, treatment and disposal of waste. It focuses on the reduction of waste generation at the source itself. Colour-coded waste skips and containers are clearly marked and placed at the point of source of the waste generation. Any hazardous waste generated from the industrial process is collected and segregated based on its nature, and a full set of safety procedures is applied to handling and disposal of such waste.

Unfortunately, in 2022, we had two notable spillages, both of which we consider non-recurring. At our Shuqaiq IWPP facility, not an ACWA Power project but managed by NOMAC, there was a total emergency shutdown for both power and water blocks on 19 March, 2022, when two foreign objects hit the fuel forwarding pumps station and boiler, resulting in a 330m³ spill. And at ACWA Power’s Rehab CEGCO decommissioning project in Jordan, we had a leak of diesel of approximately 145m³ from the tanks to the diesel trucks. When we discovered the leak, we extracted the spilled quantity and contaminated gravel for disposal.

We also experienced an increase in fly ash from our Rabigh Power Company project but this was due in part to the fact that some accumulations from 2021 were included in the data.

These were regrettable incidents but essentially isolated occurrences and do not fundamentally undermine our progress, nor alter our commitment to totally sustainable and pre-emptive waste management.