ABANDONED VEHICLE PROBLEM IN SAUDI ARABIA - Assignment Example

? ABANDONED VEHICLE PROBLEM IN SAUDI ARABIA Abandoned Vehicle Problem in Saudi Arabia Summary The issue of abandoned vehicles has caused some serious troubles in the past few years throughout the world. Even the developed countries like America, China and other European countries face this problem and it is increasing in intensity with every passing day. The situation is much worse in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Many countries, like New Zealand and European Union, have succeeded in getting rid of the problems of abandoned vehicles; however, Saudi Arabia is still caught in its strong clutches. This research paper throws light on the status of current industrial activities in Saudi Arabia by comparing it with the best current status of recycling in New Zealand. Moreover, the evaluation of the recycling industries currently working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia indicates that they are progressing very rapidly, Seder Environment for instance. Possible solutions and suggestions are given at the end in order to combat the environmental threats posed by the disproportionate abandoning of vehicles in the country. Additionally, the suggestions include massive awareness programs, implementation of the proper government laws and policies enforced by Law enforcement and other local authorities, improvement in the vehicle recycling industries and advanced research in this particular field. The health of human beings is the most important thing that needs to be taken care of in this modern era. Hence, in order to prevent further spreading of fatal diseases produced as a result of unsafe abandonment and limited recycling activities, the problems mentioned in the paper need to addressed as soon as possible. Introduction The increased expansion in the field of car technology has made human life exceedingly trouble-free. However, this advanced technology which gets quite an obsessive hype from all the strata of life does have a whole negative side to it. The issues encompassing abandoned vehicles by their owners have originated a major concern for city administrations and other law enforcement agencies throughout the world. This predicament often brings negative environmental, social and economic problems with it. The assignment of returning these abandoned vehicles back to their owners proves to be a humungous task as they do not carry any identification plates most of the times. For instance, Dubai Municipality removes around 240 to 250 cars in a month. Head of specialized hygiene, Yaqoub Al Ali once said, "Some people spoil Dubai’s landscape by leaving their cars for long periods within the city for emergency travel or because of financial and security problems" (Al-Sadafy, 2011). However, keeping in view the current statistics, the present situation in Saudi Arabia regarding the problem of abandoned vehicles is much worse and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. According to the spokesman of the traffic department of Jeddah, Lt. Colonel Zaid-Al-Hamzi, his department has removed almost 2,836 cars in 2011 from the various sections of Jeddah. Law enforcing agencies fear that they will soon run out of the suitable places to store the vehicles. Abandoned vehicles are stored for six months and once this period is over, the cars are discarded away as junk (Arabia MSN). Municipality collects a large number of deserted vehicles from all parts of the country but the lack of recycling activities in Saudi Arabia makes it difficult to deal with such a huge quantity of vehicles in a constructive way. In 2009, the municipality confiscated 1,536 vehicles from Jeddah. According to a well-known economist, Al-Buainain, the recycling sites in Saudi Arabia are marginal at present and the country needs to learn from its neighbouring countries such as Bahrain on the subject of advanced recycling activities (CW Staff, 2013). Abandoned Cars in a North Jeddah neighborhood. (Source: http://arabnews.com) (Source: www.flickr.com) Current Status of Recycling in Saudi Arabia As far as the current status of recycling in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is concerned, Jeddah Municipality has already introduced an efficient way to prevent the environment from contamination by recycling every tiny bit of waste that is generated by the people residing in Saudi Arabia every day. The method is highly effective as it saves the time required to exonerate waste using old, inefficient methods. Moreover, the beauty of the Red Sea can be conserved in this way. According to the reports provided by Jeddah Municipality, almost 5,000 tons of waste is produced every year by the residents and the amount rises to 7,000 during the month of Ramadan. Municipality deals with this enormous amount of waste by subjecting it to recycling systems. Mayor of Jeddah, Dr. Hani Abu Ras, commended recycling activities by declaring them useful for the preservation of environment. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia’s increased indulgence in recycling process has boosted the economic conditions as well as the level of employment in the country (Al-Sibai, 2012). However, Saudi Arabia has still a long way to go. In order to clean up all the cities of the country, not words but action is required. The countries like New Zealand and European Union have acquired a high position in the world in terms of their advanced recycling activities. The recycling of end-of-life vehicles (ELV) in European Union includes three basic steps; recycling, recovery and re-use. The technology used for ELV recycling has changed with the passage of time. At first, electric arc furnaces increased the employment of vehicle shells as input scrap. Late on, the production of high quality steel encouraged the magnetic separation of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Today, the recycling of ELV is done by taking into account the social and environmental concerns very seriously. The whole automobile industry is slowly shifting towards maintainable waste management systems. A considerable amount of national policies in European Union require the production of vehicles by taking into consideration the characteristics like low energy consumption, trouble-free dismantling, involvement of less toxic metals and suitable recycling. All these factors combine to make EU’s recycling industry a huge success in the present world. Moreover, the production of cars involves an increased use of aluminium content while ferrous and non-ferrous metals contribute to 67.5% of the total weight which increase the life-span of a vehicle considerably and makes it an easier subject for the process of recycling. The following figure illustrates the disposal route for ELV vehicles (Kanari, Pineau and Shallari, 2003). (Kanari, Pineau and Shallari, 2003 from http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/jom/0308/kanari-0308.html ) Similarly, New Zealand is way ahead of Saudi Arabia in recycling activities. The best current procedure of recycling used today in New Zealand involves the transportation of abandoned vehicles to vehicle dismantler where they are put through a huge metal shredding operation. Almost 160,000 car bodies are shredded in New-Zealand every year. Moreover, the disposal of used vehicle tyres consist of a number of recycling, reusing and recovery option such as Retreading, Crumbing, Incineration, Pyrolysis etc. In order to deal with the environmental concerns associated with the recycling process, the emission of chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants for instance, the cars are thoroughly scrapped and are transported to a trusted decommissioning company to collect refrigerants which are reused in the later stages. New Zealand has initiated an Oil Recovery Group solely meant to extract value from already used oil to diminish health and environmental risks. Used oils are collected from all over the country. They are further used in high temperature cement kilns as fuel. Under this program, New Zealand aimed to recover almost 95% of the total used oil by the end of 2000. Keeping in view the highly improved recycling activities of European Union and New Zealand and their results, it is advisable for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to adopt their ways in order to deal with the issues encircling abandoned vehicles in various regions of the country effectively (Tipping, 1998). Evaluation and regulation of Industrial Activities The process of recycling includes collecting materials from all over the country that would otherwise be termed as waste, processing them into raw materials and eventually manufacturing these raw materials into brand new products. Utilization of these recyclable materials makes complete sense for the improvement in the economic conditions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After careful evaluation of the recovery and recycling of waste materials in Saudi Arabia, it has become clear that recycling initiatives bring a number of advantages. These benefits include conservation of raw materials and other natural resources, reduction in the amount of waste, diminishing use of energy and related pollution, provision of job opportunities throughout the country and an immense fall in greenhouse gas emissions. The current recycling process in Saudi Arabia consists of collection and processing, the bring system involving the separation of recyclable materials, the collect system, direct recycling and manufacturing and purchasing of new products (Presidency of Meteorology And Environment). The trend of discarding used automobile batteries in the desert region of Saudi Arabia is another side effect of the abandoned vehicles. Almost 5.5 million batteries are sold every year in Saudi Arabia and the number has been continuously increasing for the past few years. In order to get rid of these abandoned vehicles and their discarded batteries, a recycling program known as MEBCO was initiated in the year 2006. The main objectives of this recycling program include collaboration with battery manufacturers and distributors to ensure the safe and environment-friendly disposal of car batteries. The program met with huge success in the beginning and almost 25,000 batteries were recycled in the very same year. The distributers of the batteries were practically paid for collecting used batteries from the desert and other remote regions of the country (Ramkumar, 2006). Moreover, several companies are currently operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the, Eldan for instance, for the recycling of car tyres. Seder Environment, a part of the well-known Seder group, is established all over Saudi Arabia as a Tyre recycling division. This subsidiary company is involved in a tyre recycling project in collaboration with Jeddah Municipality. Its main objective is to enormous quantities of scrap tyres of the abandoned vehicles left in different regions of the country into reusable products. The company possesses the capacity to turn 450 pieces of tyres into 2 tons of 99.9% pure rubber in the interval of just one hour. The machines used in the process are strong and tough. They have been withstanding strong winds, heat and sand of the desert for the past three years. The recent inspection of Seder Environment revealed that it has succeeded in replacing the process of recycling carried out by Jeddah Municipality earlier. The quality of the output is much better and the company has been contacted by many prospective customers till date (Seder Group, 2013). (Source: www.theatlanticcities.com ) (Source: www.2degreesnetwork.com ) Negative Effects of Industrial Activities in relation to the current status of recycling The chairman of the Jeddah Committee appointed by the local government, Col. Saad Harity, told the Arab News that the cars dumped by their respective owners are causing severe aesthetic problems for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in general and Jeddah in particular. A resident of Jeddah city, Naseer Al-Gathmi, declared auto-workshops a major cause of serious diseases like Asthma and allergies in young children as well as the elderly. These workshops release lethal fumes which can cause some severe respiratory disorders. Moreover, the noise produced by them has been affecting the hearing sense of the people residing nearby for the past few years. Workshops exist between highly-populated residential buildings; hence, the noise produced by them affects the inhabitants in a negative way by disturbing their stability and serenity. Apart from noise pollution, most of the workshop owners violate the traffic rules defined by the government of Saudi Arabia by providing a safe harbour to the abandoned vehicles (Mohammad and Al-Subiani, 2013). Additionally, the increasing number of congested roads and highways, abandoned vehicles and junkyards is against the traditional process of progress and urbanization. For instance, cars are composed of several components that are obtained from different sources. The components used in vehicles can prove to be highly dangerous if not used properly. Each of the components produces particular contaminants that can harm the human bodies as well as the environment they live and breathe in. The production of lethal hydrocarbons and solvents like polyethylene glycol is caused by the various fluids like brake oil, transmission oil, gear oil etc. used in motor vehicles. All these effects combine to make a polluted environment unfit for human life. Moreover, the recycling status in Saudi Arabia is still not equivalent to the countries like New Zealand as mentioned above. The limited recycling is causing troubles in waste management due to which the problems like garbage collection arise. A large sum of budget is spent on handling the departments associated with waste management that affect the economy negatively. Consequently, the volume Haj waste is increasing day by day. It is the need of the hour that Saudi Arabia form partnerships with International companied to process the waste effectively (CW Staff, 2013). (Source: www.flickr.com) Possible Solutions to resolve the Issue and their benefits In order to overcome these issues, a little use of entrepreneurship can prove useful. Abandoned cars are bound to suffer from natural wear and tear eventually but the demand for luxury cars is not expected to go down anytime soon. Hence, these abandoned vehicles can be sold at discounted prices after a bit mechanical work. This would help both the government and the people demanding luxury cars in a positive way. The business is sure to make profits thereby, helping to boost the deteriorating economic conditions of the country. Moreover, it is recommended that Saudi Arabia start building database of metal waste from individual sources like solid wastes and construction waste, Massive awareness programs should be launched to educate people about the negative aspects of their unconstructive activities regarding vehicles. More people should be encouraged to be a part of the business involving the resale of abandoned vehicles after proper paperwork. Investors should be encouraged to launch industrial programs for recycling waste materials. Furthermore, legislations should be issued in order to prevent the investors from black market. The government of Saudi Arabia needs to provide incentives to prospective investors (Bafail, Jomoah and Noweir, 2012). Furthermore, a decrease in the number of abandoned vehicles is a sign of economic recovery. The parking spaces will be cleared out making area for the running and currently in-use cars. The implementation of car air conditioning units, tyre dumping options and the disposal of certain car parts just like New Zealand is bound to bring benefits for the environment of the country as a whole (Tipping, 1998). Conclusion In short, it is quite pertinent to say that the issue of abandoned vehicles has become a cause of consternation for the various countries of the world. The extent of the severity of this problem can be understood by the condition of the workshops and the limited recycling facilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, several awareness programs have been initiated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, many new industrial and recycling projects are working under the careful inspection of Saudi authorities. Further research on this particular subject is expected to put forward effective solutions in the form of advanced recycling systems like the ones in European Union and New Zealand to eliminate the problems of abandoned vehicles entirely. Hence, Saudi government highly appreciates the budding researchers in order to deal with the worsening situation of the country as a whole. Bibliography BAFAIL. ABDULLAH, O., JOMOAH. IBRAHIM, M. & NOWEIR. MADBULI, H. (2012). Recycling Industrial Metal Wastes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). [online]. Canadian Journal on Scientific and Industrial Research. Available at:< http://www.ampublisher.com/May%202012/SIR-1205-014-Recycling-Industrial-Metal-Wastes-Kingdom-Saudi-Arabia.pdf >[Accessed 26 July 2013] CW Staff. (2013). Saudi should unlock waste recycling income: report. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 26 July 2013] KANARI. N., PINEAU.J, L., & SHALLARI. S. (2003). End-of-life Vehicle Recycling in the European Union. [Online]. TMS. Available at: [Accessed 26 July 2013] MOHAMMED, IRFAN., & AL-SUBIANI, KHALID. (2013). Jeddah targets abandoned cars. [Online] Arab News. Available at: < http://arabnews.com/news/447523> [Accessed 26 July 2013] PRESIDENCY OF METEOROLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT. 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