Project to cut Qatar carbon footprint

By Bonnie James/Deputy News Editor

A sustainable waste management (SWM) system, that could go a long way in reducing the carbon footprint of Qatar’s waste sector, will be tested in the Baytna project, the country’s first Passivhaus experiment.

The Baytna (Our Home) project, which opened last month in Barwa City at Mesaimeer, is jointly implemented by Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), Barwa Real Estate Group and Kahramaa (Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation).

The SWM system, developed by BG2 Global, is intended to prove that a nation’s waste sector can contribute to reductions in the carbon footprint.

As an example, the stakeholders point out that in 1990 Germany’s waste sector contributed 38mn tonnes of CO₂ to their footprint, but with the right sustainable waste management technologies, it reduced by 18mn tonnes in 2006.

Qatar generates per day more than 7,000 tonnes of domestic, construction, commercial and industrial solid waste, according to Qatar’s National Development Strategy 2011-2016.

A fact-finding mission from QGBC’s Solid Waste Interest Group, which tried to unravel the problems, issues and successes relating to domestic waste management in Qatar, discovered that “the country is in danger of being buried under a mountain of waste”.

Given that the new Domestic Solid Waste Management Centre is already operating well above its designed daily capacity, there could be a problem if landfill sites are to remain closed, they had warned.

SWM is preferred to conventional landfills as the latter aggravates climate change through the formation of methane gas when the biodegradable wastes decompose.

Environmentalists have pointed out that the comparative effect of methane on climate change is over 20 times greater than CO₂ over a 100-year period.

At the core of the SWM system being implemented in the Baytna project is the tried and tested composting of food and garden waste, a method already adopted by environmentally conscious families across the world, including some in Qatar.

Composting organic waste reduces Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions compared to landfilling with energy recovery systems. Plants grown in compost-rich soil can reduce the need for irrigation by 30-70%.

The application of compost leads to a reduced need for GHG producing petroleum-based chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and additives, apart from substantially increases the amount of carbon sequestered in soil.

The Passivhaus experiment features two side-by-side 225sq m villas, to compare the energy use and environmental footprint. The conventional villa is built to a one-star Global Sustainability Assessment System standard whereas the Passivhaus villa will consume 50% less energy and water, resulting in a halving of carbon footprint.

The calibration of both villas’ base energy and water loads is to be completed by the end of October. Untrained families are expected to live in the villas from beginning of November 2013 to end of April 2014.

The family occupying the Passivhaus will have to put all the organic waste in a special bin and subsequently transfer to a composting bin where it is to stay for six to eight weeks.

Later the almost completely composted material has to be put into the maturation bay for the final process and storage.

The non-organic waste such as paper, tins/cans, plastic bottles and glass generated in the Passivhaus needs to be deposited in a special bin in the kitchen and later transferred to a larger recycling bin outside from where the material will be sent to a verifiable reprocessor.

The Baytna project will also witness over the next couple of years a number of testing and studies, including achieving carbon neutrality by exporting excess solar power into Kahramaa’s grid, water recycling and an irrigation experiment among others.