Sharjah Update Sharjah business & Investment News from Invest in Sharjah (Sharjah FDI Office)
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Hands Industries, a second hand clothes dealer and recycler based in the Sharjah Airport Free Zone (SAIF Zone), sells an average of 500 tonnes of recycled clothes per month, according to UAE’s The National newspaper. Sharjah has become a hub for recycling and waste management with the emirate’s own waste management company, Bee’ah, driving a zero-waste initiative to divert 100% of Sharjah’s generated waste from landfill for use as other resources by mid-2015.
The clothing recycler, which employs 150 staff, buys unwanted garments from a UAE charity with an estimated 7,000 collection boxes across the UAE and sorts the old clothes at its 20,000 square metre facility in SAIF Zone. Overall, Hands Industries processes an average of 100 tonnes of clothes per day from American, Australia, Europe and the UAE, sorting them into 150 different grades. The company currently has the largest loading bay in the free zone.
The company sells an estimated 200 tonnes of recycled clothes per month to companies in the United Arab Emirates, a further 50 tonnes to companies around the region and 250 tonnes to importers in Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.
Sustainable waste management, recycling, renewable energy and eco-tourism have all been identified as economic opportunities by Sharjah’s government and the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) expects the environment sector to grow by 15 percent to AED 1 billion (US$ 0.27b) by 2016.
Source: The National, Hands Industries
