A Saudi Arabia-based company is deriving rich dividends from waste disposal business, showing a good business model.

Tadawulat, the only GCC-based company that manages hazardous wastes, has grown at 42 percent annually for the past few years. Amid the hoopla of mainstream commodities doing comparatively well during the financially tough 2009, there is news of a rather unnoticed commodity faring better in the GCC. The company is paid by firms wanting to dispose off their wastes, but cannot do so in the open because of municipality regulations.Tadawulat collects the wastes and transport to European plants to dispose them off.

"We have been handling tonnes of hazardous waste annually, which includes chemicals, metals and alloys from batteries and other hazardous substances," said Khalid Al Bawardi, the CEO of Tadawulat, a Saudi Arabia-based company that also has an office in Dubai. Al Bawardi founded Tadawulat as a logistics company in 1994 and later branched out to the field that brought him fame and wealth. In 2002 he began managing hazardous wastes making the organisation one of the few in the world to specialise in such a field. Si

Since 2002, TAD Global Environmental Solutions (Now TAD Environment), a subsidiary of Tadawulat has shipped and disposed more than 10,000 tonnes of hazardous waste. The company has an annual turnover of Dh50 million. The company was ranked 23rd among the 100 fastest growing companies in Saudi Arabia the last year. It has been recognised by the United Nations and the US Army and handles the hazardous wastes of the two organisations.

There is a lot of potential for growth of companies such as this in the GCC, Al Bawardi said. "About 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of hazardous waste are generated out of the GCC alone. There is certainly a lot of potential here."

Al Bawardi initially began operating in the GCC countries but later fanned out to the entire Middle East including African nations, Pakistan and Afghanistan. "The fact is that there are a lot of opportunities in such a specialised field. And we are the only one in the entire region doing it. We, at times, work in Central Asia and South West Asia," he said. Expired chemicals and batteries are the most widely available waste the company handles in the region.

The company works in 17 countries in all, including Egypt and Jordan. "We collect wastes from these countries and export it to Europe for environmentally sound disposal. Proper disposal means incineration or chemical treatment. All the wastes is to be disposed in accordance with the principles of the Basel Convention," Al Bawardi said. "Unfortunately, no country in the region will accept hazardous waste. And there are not many facilities to dispose off such waste in environmentally sound manner. It requires an investment of €4m (Dh18m) to build such a facility." Incinerators that dispose medical waste in hospitals are not sufficient to dispose off hazardous waste. "The incinerators that dispose hazardous waste operate at a higher temperature than medical incinerators."

Story may also be read at Emirates 24/7.