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00:30This is what the future of consumption can look like, if we choose it.
00:36It all begins on the sorting line.
00:38We are looking at the primary sorting line at BIA's Waste Management Complex in Charge.
00:43High-volume commingled and commercial waste is processed continuously,
00:46using automated screens, magnets, eddy currents, ballistic separators, and Optida sorters.
00:54Increasingly, the sorting is done not by hand, but by machine.
00:58AI vision and optical sorters detect material at the polymer level in milliseconds,
01:03while robotics pick at speeds human sorting cannot match.
01:07This allows us to recover lightweight and complex items that were previously lost to landfills,
01:12pushing pale purity above 95%.
01:15This is what the future of the circular economy looks like in practice.
01:19Charge now diverts a vast majority of its household waste away from landfill.
01:25Over 1.5 million kilograms of waste moves through this facility every single day.
01:34Almost nothing is wasted.
01:36What comes off these lines is given a second life.
01:39We recover high-demand industrial feedstocks.
01:41Plastics, PET, PPE, LDP, as well as HDPE,
01:46are converted into pallets and flakes for new packaging and consumer goods.
01:51Metals, on the other hand, are melted down into structural steel and new beverage cans.
01:56Non-recyclables are sent to waste to energy,
01:58where we produce electricity for up to 28,000 ohms per year.
02:03And whatever cannot be recycled is not buried.
02:06Some of it is burned to make power.
02:10I'm here in the control room of the Sharjah Waste to Energy plant,
02:14which was the first of its kind in the region.
02:16It turns everyday household items into electricity,
02:20powering thousands of homes.
02:22The plant's engineers explain why a modern city can no longer rely on landfill.
02:28Waste to Energy converts non-recyclable waste into valuable energy,
02:33reducing landfill dependency while recovering value from residual waste.
02:38And it matters, they say, far beyond this plant.
02:42It matters because sustainable cities cannot rely on landfill.
02:46Waste to Energy transforms an environmental challenge into a long-term energy solution.
02:53For those who built it, there is a real pride in what it represents.
02:57I'm extremely proud.
02:59This is the kind of infrastructure that delivers lasting environmental,
03:04economical and societal value for future generations.
03:09Every circular economy begins with ambition.
03:12In Uzbekistan, that ambition is being put into action,
03:15a nation moving to transform how it matches waste
03:18on a scale few countries would attempt.
03:29Uzbekistan generates roughly 15 million tons of household waste a year.
03:34Government figures suggest only around 5% to 6% is recycled or processed by specialist companies.
03:41Most waste, therefore, remains outside the recycling system.
03:45The country's response combines landfill reform, recycling, and waste to energy.
03:50These approaches address different parts of the waste stream,
03:53and they do not all play the same role in a circular economy.
03:57The first challenge is the most basic,
04:00collecting waste safely and controlling what reaches landfill.
04:0450 years of waste went into the ground just over there.
04:08This facility replaced it last year.
04:1124 hectares, compacted waste, and proper containment.
04:14Up to 2,500 tons of waste arrive every single day from across the capital.
04:20But the most interesting part is what happens next.
04:25Organic material buried without oxygen produces methane,
04:29a powerful greenhouse gas.
04:32It can escape from landfill or be captured and used as fuel.
04:37In the old polygons, there was a huge increase of gas and methane.
04:42And now, on the old polygons, there is a project for the extraction of this gas and methane
04:47and the production of the electricity.
04:50Gas capture can reduce emissions and generate electricity.
04:54But sealing a landfill does not answer risk.
04:57Masane and polluted liquid, known as leachate,
05:00can persist for years and require long-term monitoring.
05:25Alongside efforts to improve landfill management,
05:28Uzbekistan is expanding waste to energy incineration.
05:31Government is rolling out a nationwide network of waste-to-energy plants,
05:36with six currently under construction and additional projects planned.
05:41The site will be processing 1,500 tons of Samarkand's waste every single day
05:47and sending the electricity straight to the national grid.
05:50That is the government's case.
06:10In the waste hierarchy, however, burning waste for energy is classed as recovery, not recycling.
06:16It can reduce landfill volumes and generate power, but it also produces emissions and ash.
06:22Its environmental performance will depend on what is burned,
06:24the pollution controls used, and how their residues are managed.
06:29Beyond the large projects, private operators have also entered waste collection.
06:43At household level, sorting remains a major obstacle.
06:47In 2024, Zero Waste distributed 10,000 bags for residents to separate recyclable waste.
06:54Only around 1% were returned sorted.
06:56It's not a national measure, but it illustrates the difficulty of changing household habits.
07:21The projects are moving ahead, but the circular economy depends on more than new infrastructure.
07:27Whether household's ordering can keep pace remains an open question.
07:33From the UAE to Uzbekistan, this proves that clothing the loop on waste isn't just possible,
07:38it's already happening, whenever people choose to act.
07:42That's all for this episode of Earth Now.
07:45Join us next time as we uncover more about the work underway across the planet to safeguard it.
07:57The Earth Now
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