Saudi Arabia has published a new Waste Management Law on September 15th 2021. This law aims to regulate the transport, segregation, storage, import, export, safe disposal of waste and all other activities related to it. This law replaces Municipal Solid Waste Management Law enacted by the Royal Decree no. M/48 of 2013. All concerned parties must recycle, retrieve resources, and ensure safe disposal in order to achieve better environmental and economical results.
According to article 11 of this law waste producers must conserve natural resources and materials, reuse products, reduce waste, store it in the designated areas, and separate it for the purpose of reuse or recycle.
Article 14 holds the manufacturers/importers an extended responsibility for their products to ensure financial sustainability in the waste management sector and therefore enforce the concept of circular economy. The rules and procedures concerned will be determined in the executive regulation for this law.
Article 16 to 18 prescribe the different responsibilities of waste related service providers. For example, disposal service providers must adhere to the disposal methods set by the national waste management center (NWMC). As for hazardous waste transporters, they must use means of transportation that conform with NWMC standards, place warning labels and ensure the existence of documentation about the transported hazardous waste.
This law also regulates the import and export of waste as well as dealing with emergency situations. Article 19 prohibits the import of hazardous waste without a permit. It also prohibits the import of recycled waste in addition to recycled used products, devices and equipment.
This law will take affect November 14th 2021.
The original text of the law can be downloaded from the following link:
https://laws.boe.gov.sa/BoeLaws/Laws/LawDetails/4d5bda56-cc0d-4b16-a025-ad9d00b281ab/1