Practical concerns are driving MENA countries to invest in waste conversion facilities that turn garbage into food, energy, and fertiliser.
For countries like UAE and Egypt, waste conversion capacity is not just an ecological solution. It also offers ways to strengthen economic security and protect precious resources.
Here is how MENA countries are investing in waste conversion as an everyday tool – not just a nice-to-have.
From landfill to farm, in Dubai
One of the most ambitious waste conversion projects in MENA is in the UAE, where a vertical mega-farm is set to turn waste into fertiliser, water, and compost for its crops.
Dubai’s ReFarm was first floated at COP 2023 and reached its first construction phase in the summer of 2026. To achieve this, the farm will make many of its inputs on-site using waste diverted from landfill.
The project plans to make its own compost using one of the most sustainable waste conversion technologies: living black soldier fly larvae. This species is incredibly efficient at breaking down low-value organic matter into rich compost that will feed the indoor crops.
The farm will also have its own circular biofertiliser capacity. Ammonia sulphate will be recovered from wastewater and used as fertiliser. There are also plans to produce organic biodegradable polymers designed to gradually release water and nutrients to crops.
At 900,000 square feet, ReFarm should become the world’s biggest vertical farm, with ambitions to match. Its ultimate aim is to produce 3 million kilos per year of food per year and to replace 1% of the United Arab Emirate’s food imports.
The UAE imports over 85% of its food. Self-sufficiency has long been top of the agenda for policymakers for years, becoming more visible as the Iran-US-Israel war continues. Vertical farming that squeezes maximum value from local waste will be one route to easing dependence on foreign supply chains.
Scottish tech in the Middle East
The technology behind the vertical farm comes from Scotland’s Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS). The other half of the partnership is Emirates Rawabi PSC, one of the UAE’s leading agribusiness groups.
IGS contracted another Scottish firm Modutec to construct the first 20 vertical farming towers. This is the first vertical farming project for the company, which has experience in the energy, marine and defence industries.
The partners now have plans to implement pilot projects in circular agriculture around the region, from waste valorization to regenerative soil and water systems. Their ambitions extend far beyond the Gulf too – CEO Oliver Christof says he wants the Dubai facility to serve as a blueprint for the future of food production worldwide.
A waste-to-energy leader
Urban farming is still a nascent sector. Yet the UAE is already a leader in a more established field: waste-to-energy conversion.
The country currently has three plants in operation that turn garbage into grid electricity. The smallest is in Sharjah, with a capacity of 30 megawatt hours. Launched in 2202, the facility produces bioenergy, diverting 300, 000 tonnes of unrecyclable waste from landfill each year in the process.
The site that will become UAE’s second biggest waste conversion facility is currently under construction in Abu Dhabi. The project will eventually use about half of the city’s mixed municipal waste and convert it into national grid electricity.
Scheduled to become operational in 2028, the Abu Dhabi site will have an annual processing capacity of 400,000 tonnes. It will also be capable of processing 200,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste and 200,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial waste.
Bigger still is the Dubai waste-to-energy facility – the world’s largest plant of its kind. Operational since 2024, this $1 billion facility produces enough power for 120, 000 homes and processes up to 1.9 million tonnes of municipal waste every year. The CEO says that around 45% of Dubai’s total waste goes there for processing.
Pragmatism drives UAE investments
Waste conversion facilities are more than just sustainability initiatives for the UAE. They also enable the government to deliver on bread and butter services like waste management.
Historically, the UAE has put most of its waste in landfills or dumpsites. This is a huge risk from a health and food security perspective.
In an arid nation like the UAE, agricultural land and groundwater are limited. Toxic waste contamination can rapidly erode precious resources.
Apart from anything else, the country is rapidly running out of space underground for its garbage. Waste conversion is a quick route to drawing down the amount of materials that needs to go to landfill.
Oman catalyses waste-to-energy
Oman similarly views circular infrastructure as a practical tool for delivering state services and resource efficiency.
Here again, economic concerns are driving adoption. Oman is a small country where only around 4.6% of the total land area is suitable for cultivation. Meanwhile, approximately 80% is classified as desert or semi-desert. In this context, it is vital to protect water and soils from toxic wastestreams.
The country has no shortage of waste feedstock to work with: 3.1 million tonnes were deposited in engineered landfills in 2024. With an expanding population, this is a problem (and a resource pool) that will only grow.
The country is starting to leverage this resource base. At the centre of its growing circular sector is the government’s national waste management company be’ah (Oman Environmental Services Holding Company).
Thanks to Be’ah, Oman is now mounting one of the region’s most coordinated circular growth programmes. It has been working with companies across the spectrum of industries that produce valuable waste – from construction to electronics to agriculture.
Be’ah’s work includes waste-to-energy projects. Oman’s first large-scale waste to energy project is currently getting off the ground in Barka, South Al Batinah. Its projected capacity ranges between 95 and 100 megawatts and should be able to treat up to 3,000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day.
In its 2025 Annual Report, Be’ah also highlighted a feasibility study it conducted for large-scale waste-to-energy conversion plants in Muscat, Al Batinah South, and Al Batinah, signalling further ambitions to grow the sector.
Oman builds biobased circularity
Compared to landfilling, waste-to-energy plants are the lesser evil. They offer a short-term solution to toxic waste backlogs in countries with limited recycling infrastructure.
Yet waste-to-energy plants ultimately burn waste rather than upcycle the valuable components inside of them. This makes the process far from ideal from a sustainability perspective.
Be’ah has also been active in setting up more sustainable waste conversion industries that keep materials in the economy for longer.
In 2021, it signed a deal with a company called Nakheel Oman to convert green waste into animal feed. Be’ah has also supported homegrown greentech startup NTZ Solutions, which converts green waste into biochar – a biomaterial that can improve agricultural soil.
Processes like this keep valuable materials cycling through the economy for longer – through the soil, plants, animals, and humans, then back again.
Egypt startups dive into a huge agro-waste pool
In Egypt too, the circular economy presents a practical solution to questions around growing waste, limited resources, and an arid environment.
Agriculture and the food industry are the big sources of feedstock here. Egypt generates an estimated 35 million tonnes of agricultural waste a year. Of this, only 7 million tonnes are being used as animal feed and 4 million as organic manure, leaving plenty for circular innovators.
Domestic startup Wastilizer has gained an international reputation turning animal waste into plant fertilisers and energy. It recently opened its first biogas unit designed to convert slaughterhouse waste into renewable energy and organic fertiliser. Mozna is another domestic firm manufacturing liquid organic fertiliser using waste from the production of biogas.
Cyclex is another national champion, a startup dedicated to recycling solid waste into valuable products. Acquired in 2025 by Edafa Venture for six figures, the firm is now on a pathway to scaling across the region.
Waste-to-biomaterials space also features in Egypt’s circular scene. Chitosan Egypt makes the biobased wonder-material chitosan using shrimp and crab waste. Bug Factory Biotech does what it promises on the tin, turning organic waste into liquid feritliser, speciality biomaterials, and animal feed using Black Soldier Flies.
Not just a nice-to-have
From anaerobic digesters to black soldier flies, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are deploying a gamut of technologies to extract what they need from sewage and discarded food.
These countries are blazing a trail in circular pragmatism, an approach that views waste conversion as a vital tool of economic security, not just a nice-to-have.
The region already sees how waste conversion offers benefits far beyond short-term profit. The projects being built there serve public and state goals, allowing resources to go further and offering waste management pathways.
Around the world, too, waste conversion will become a foundational technology for the 21st century. As ordinary resources like food and water become increasingly precious, it won’t be long before other governments around the world adopt MENA’s pragmatic attitude to circular technologies.
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