UAE: Factory that turns waste into building materials set to transform Emirates into a green powerhouse

A waste recycling factory that produces building materials is expected to start functioning in the UAE in 2024. This announcement was made at the Climate Future Week (CFW) in Dubai on Wednesday.

The CEO and Founder of Miniwiz, Arthur Huang, whose products have been endorsed by celebrities, including musician will.i.am, said, "We're going to build an upcycling plant to be able to take some of the raw material locally and turn that into building material that we can sell in the UAE and around the world."

Arthur said his factory would help the UAE become independent in several aspects. Speaking to Khaleej Times, he said, "If the UAE wants to be self-sufficient, then this is the opportunity to use the infrastructure to digest its own trash," he said. "I see a lot of potential here to recycle waste into building material and even ship it to places, especially in Africa."

Starting out

Always keen on the environment, Arthur started his journey of recycling trash two decades ago. "I start with making a tiny cell phone charger that's harnessed the wind and the sun made from recycled paper," he said. "The concept of that product is still what we are doing today- using recycled material trash."

Arthur admitted that he faced several challenges when he was starting. "Back then, there was no trash you could buy," he said. "So we went to get, so we literally had to buy a shredder to chop down our own material. We added it to the new injection machine and built a very small wind generator to power the battery to power the iPod."

Despite the challenges, Arthur and his team could sell the product for a good profit. "We got lucky," he said. "We made $2.8 million from that first product. So that gave us the energy to go into different things."

Turning to building materials

It was several years down the line that the team of Miniwiz turned to producing building materials. "Once you have a material, it can be anything," he said. "It's just in different specifications. We only focus on the architecture applications now."

In 2015, the company was appointed by Nike to build nine stores across several countries. Miniwiz used material made from discarded Nike footwear and apparel and e-waste such as motherboards and casings.

More recently, the company was commissioned to create a special material from fashion waste for a mall in Taiwan. The fabric was used all over the mall's interiors and as insulation material.

Today, the company specialises in a niche market. "We concentrate on health care building business because that's the highest impact in terms of minimising carbon footprint," said Arthur.

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