Lead alert in the UAE

Dozens of illegal recyclers are dumping highly toxic battery waste in the UAE's open environment, exposing residents and ill-equipped workers to serious health hazards, an XPRESS investigation has revealed. An estimated four million litres of acid from scrap car batteries as well as lead is being dispersed on the land, air and water by illegal recyclers in the UAE, some of them in Dubai and Sharjah industrial areas. Hamid Ramezani, Managing Director of Unique Metal Technologies (UMT) Free Zone Co which recycles car batteries using an integrated plant in Jebel Ali, said electrolyte acid from scrap car batteries is a highly corrosive substance and should not be left to unlicensed and untrained dealers to handle. "Acid from car batteries is considered a hazardous waste, but many - probably hundreds of people using pick-up trucks (which are unsuitable for its transport) - in the UAE deal with it as scrap and use unsafe methods in disposing of these," he told XPRESS. Article continues below Unsafe methods "Most of the illegal recyclers drain the acid from batteries and dump them on to the ground or down the sewers," he said. Established in 2005, UMT is a pioneer in car battery recycling in the UAE using an integrated Dh150-million plant - one of about 50 such plants in the world - equipped with state-of-the-art technology supplied by Italy's Engitec. The plant recovers lead and plastics from scrap car batteries at about 6,000 tonnes per hour or 37,150 metric tonnes of car batteries per year. It can also produce up to 4,800 tonnes of sodium sulphate, used in the manufacture of detergents. Car batteries must be replaced every 18 to 24 months. Ramezani reckons that 25,000 metric tonnes of used lead acid batteries (ULAB) are discarded every year in the UAE. Each battery contains about 1.5 litres of electrolyte acid. About 70 per cent of a battery's weight is lead - which is fuelling a black market for used batteries. The going rate in the UAE is Dh3,500 per tonne for discarded batteries, which are exported to recyclers in India, Iran and Pakistan. Last month, Engr Ahmad Mohammad Al Jasmi, Head of Environmental Planning and Studies Section at Dubai Municipality, had warned car garages, transport fleet operators, battery changing shops and establishments and premises handling lead-acid batteries, urging them to comply with the guidelines on proper disposal of hazardous wastes. In a circular, Al Jasmi said that any person or establishment collecting and disposing of spent lead-acid battery without a valid permit from the municipality's Environment Department "is liable for legal action, penalty and/or cancellation of their licence". Albino Allado, UMT's Health, Safety and Environment Officer, has welcomed the municipality's move. "This is the initial step to control and regulate the rampant illegal activities of scrap dealers who are unconcerned about the health and safety of UAE residents and pollute the environment," said Allado. Gianluigi Spinelli, an engineer with Engitec, said that as a signatory to the Basel Convention, the UAE should ban the export of hazardous components such as used batteries. "People engaged in the illegal trade of hazardous waste must choose to either go out of business or continue to make money by using safe collection and transportation methods. They can still make money legally. But the government should ban the export of hazardous wastes," he said.