For much of modern history, cities have followed a simple pattern: resources come in, products are used and what remains is thrown away. As cities grow and demand for resources increases, we need to question whether this model still makes sense. Much of what we call waste still has a use. The challenge is making sure it does not end up in the wrong place.

That is the thinking behind the circular economy. At its simplest, circularity is about keeping materials in use for longer, whether through reuse, recovery, recycling or finding another purpose for them. For our sector, it means looking beyond collecting waste and taking it away. We need to think about what happens next, what can be recovered and what can be put back to use.

Much of what we call waste still has a use

I have spent more than three decades working in waste and environmental services around the world, and the way we think about waste has changed significantly during that time. Today, success should not be measured simply by how efficiently a city collects its waste. We should also be asking how much we recover, how much we reuse and how little we send to landfill.

Rethinking waste

In Abu Dhabi, we are putting this thinking into practice. Tadweer Group is working towards diverting 80% of the emirate’s municipal solid waste away from landfill by 2031. Getting there means looking at the whole system, from collection and sorting to recycling, treatment, recovery and converting waste into resources and energy.

Technology has an important role to play. Abu Dhabi’s first greenfield material recovery facility is planned with an annual processing capacity of 400,000 tonnes and will use automated, optical and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled sorting. Another facility in Al-Ain will have a similar capacity and is designed to divert approximately 60% of the city’s municipal solid waste from landfill.

The important point is what happens to the materials passing through these facilities. Instead of being buried, more of them can be separated, recovered and used again.

Changing behaviour

But we cannot build a circular economy with infrastructure alone. What people and businesses do with the things they no longer need matters just as much.

A recyclable material placed in the wrong bin can become waste. Food bought but never eaten becomes waste. An electronic device discarded without considering whether its materials can be recovered becomes waste. The choices we make before something reaches a waste facility have a direct impact on what can be done with it afterwards.

If something has value, we should think carefully before throwing it away

In the UAE, this idea also has a strong connection to our past. Sustainability can sometimes sound like a modern term, but the thinking behind it is familiar.

Previous generations consumed carefully, repaired and reused what they owned, made use of local materials and wasted as little as possible. They did so partly because resources were harder to come by, but there is something important for us to learn from that approach. If something has value, we should think carefully before throwing it away.

Today, we have tools that previous generations did not. AI, advanced sorting systems, digital platforms and new treatment technologies can help us identify, separate and recover materials on a scale that was previously impossible.

These technologies can make a major difference, but they work alongside something much simpler: people recognising the value of the resources they use.

A circular future

No organisation can make this change by itself. Food waste, electronics, construction materials, packaging and countless other materials all have different paths from production and consumption to collection and recovery. Businesses, government entities, technology providers, waste management companies and communities all have their own parts to play in keeping those resources in use for longer.

Waste has long been treated as an unavoidable consequence of growth

For me, this is one of the most important questions when we talk about the sustainable city of the future. How much of what a city consumes does it simply throw away, and how much can it recover and use again?

Waste has long been treated as an unavoidable consequence of growth. I do not think it has to be. Cities will continue to grow, people will continue to consume and businesses will continue to produce. Our task is to make much better use of the resources already moving through those cities.

Moving from waste to value begins with a fairly simple change in perspective. Before we decide that something has reached the end of its life, we should ask whether it really has. In a circular city, throwing something away should be the last choice, not the first.