The GCC’s first glass recycling plant, a fully-automated facility with a production capacity of 650-tonnes per day, will be operational by the first half of 2020 at phase 7, Sohar Industrial Estate. Global Glass Recycling, which owns and will operate the plant, is promoted by Sheikh Hilal bin Hamad al Hasani, CEO of Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Mayadin) and Chairman of Shumookh Investment & Services and Ramesh Mani, a well-known glass industry veteran in the GCC. OER speaks to Ramesh Mani about the project’s business prospects and its strategic importance for Oman. Excerpts from an interview:

Give us a brief on Global Glass Recycling and the salient features of its glass recycling plant coming up in Sohar?

Global Glass Recycling (GGR) will be the first glass recycling facility within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It will be a fully automated plant with a 650-tonne per day capacity. The plant is particularly designed to meet the needs of varied glass manufacturers within the GCC region in terms of specifications, volumes and pricing.

The plant will use the Glass Recycling Technology, an exclusive and patented technology from technology provider, M/s.Glass-Scan Technologies, who originate from Germany. The equipment is manufactured and supplied by Binder+Co from Austria that specialises in recycling equipment. The company has confirmed long-term import agreements for the broken glass, raw materials and export sales agreements with glass manufacturers, ensuring pre-bookings of the capacities well in advance.

Can you talk about the business potential and the industry prospects of the project?

Other than the business potential aspect, I knew about the varied benefits glass recycling would bring into the country and the glass producers within the GCC.

A total of 2.4 million tonnes of glass is used and dumped annually and it is high time that we in the Middle East looked at it seriously and addressed it. We currently have more than 90,000 tonnes of glass thrown into the landfill in Oman every year and an average of about 4000 tonnes per day dumped into the landfills between Oman, UAE and Qatar. The demand for glass within the GCC has been perceived to have a consistent growth of 5 per cent each year for the last few years. There is no efficient and organised glass recycling system within the GCC in operation and for me, my plan was to make Oman have the first state-of-the-art unit to cater to varied ranges of glass manufacturers within the GCC and Asia.

Within the GCC, close to 40,000 tonnes of glass is thrown into landfill per day. The Public Establishment for Industrial Establishment (Madayn), which comes under the patronage of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Sultanate of Oman supported me in my initiative and hopes to resolve this problem by facilitating this project as the first step.

The credit for this project should rightfully go to Sheikh Hilal Humad Al Hasani, CEO of Madayn who has supported my project plans with his encouragement and most importantly infrastructure. He has facilitated with his wide contacts getting the right and likeminded investors for this project from the Government and private sectors. So without him, this project would not have been possible.

On my request, Sheikh Hilal Al Hasani was also present with me at GLASSTEC 2018 in Dusseldorf in October 2018, where we presented the project to the entire Glass fraternity from all over the world under one roof.

What will be the benefits of the project to Oman and the GCC?

The benefits of glass recycling are numerous where every tonne of cullet replaces 1.2 tonnes of raw materials and melting recycled glass uses 10 per cent less energy. Statistically, glass recycling has saved 350,000 tonnes of CO2 in the UK. It also reduces emissions by 50 per cent. In addition, there are a lot of other uses for this glass cullet such as abrasives, Glassphalt, Glasscrete, insulation, paint pigments, tiles and bricks and filtration. The biggest benefit of glass is that it is recyclable. It can be recycled endlessly without any loss of impurity or quality. Recycling glass can reduce emissions and the production of raw materials, as well as extend furnace lifespans by at least two years.

We have already signed long term agreements for the import of glass not only from within the GCC but also from Asia. I must also specially mention the excellent support and encouragement we have received at all steps from Beah for our project.

How is the project going to be beneficial for the glass manufacturers in Oman and the region?

With this project, the annual savings in terms of costs incurred towards raw materials, natural gas and enhancement of furnace life by using Ready to Use processed glass cullet from GGR will benefit and save Omani glass manufacturers and is estimated to reduce their batch costs by about 30 per cent and above under optimum production conditions.

GGR will be the first fully automated plant which guarantees glass cullet pertaining to each glass industry’s specifcations without any contamination on a consistent basis. This is a boom for the glass manufacturers and will reduce their costs.

How did you become involved in this project?

The potential of glass recycling has been known to me for many years as I have headed glass industries over years and understand the importance of glass cullet availability on a consistent basis for a glass plant. I have always been intrigued to see the systems and initiatives taken towards glass recycling by many countries around the globe, particularly in Europe where Belgium was a prime role model and an act to follow.

My long-term association with my friends, Dieter Olschewski from Cibite and Andre Ommer from Glassglobal started the path. Here were three people with like-minded thinking and a technology developed with the expertise of Cibite (exclusive technology partners to a global inspection machine manufacturer), Glassglobal with its expertise towards data analysis, business planning and feasibility studies, and finally myself coming from a rich Glass Technology background of 32 years in the industry.

While the technology is German and the equipment is from Binder, based in Austria; our company Glass Scan Technologies was born out of this collaboration to launch glass recycling within the GCC. We three complement each other with our expertise, knowledge and experience.

I have been a resident of Oman since 2004 and an investor within the Sultanate for 10 years. I headed Majan Glass between 2004 until the end of 2016. With the support of the Omani government and then existing board of directors, under my leadership we transformed Majan Glass from a bankrupt unit to the 49th best performing glass factory in the world as per Plimsoll UK Limited ratings.

After I left Majan Glass, to become a full-fledged entrepreneur, I have been associated with the Ministry of Oman in the capacity of advisor and consultant for various projects and investments coming into the country including being nominated in the panel for the esteemed Tanfeedh project for the manufacturing and logistics sector and it was natural for me to use my wide contacts within Oman to see the potential and introduce this within Oman.

Let me also mention that the support, encouragement, infrastructure and investments extended to this project by Sheikh Al Hasani has strengthened my belief that it was the correct decision.

Our Sultanate of Oman will be the trendsetter in glass recycling all over the GCC and I am very happy about the same.