• The following words and phrases - wherever they appear in the Law and this Regulation - shall have the meanings indicated next to each, unless the context requires otherwise:

  • Law: Waste Management Law.
  • Regulation: The Implementing Regulation of the Waste Management Law.
  • Center: National Center for Waste Management.
  • Council: Board of Directors of the Center.
  • Ministry: Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture.
  • Minister: Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center.
  • President: Chief Executive Officer of the Center.
  • Competent Authority: The government agency responsible for operational waste management according to a specific statutory provision.
  • Relevant Authorities: Government agencies responsible for issuing licenses or permits related to their jurisdictions.
  • Person: A natural or legal personality.
  • Waste: All materials that are discarded or disposed of, which directly or indirectly affect public health or the environment.
  • Materials that are discarded or disposed of: Materials that are discarded, disposed of, or should be discarded or disposed of.
  • Waste Producer: Any person who produces waste classified according to the provisions of the Law.
  • Waste Management: Organizing any activity or practice related to waste, including collection, transportation, sorting, storage, treatment, recycling, import, export, and safe disposal, including post-care of waste disposal sites.
  • Permit: A document granted by the Center to waste recycling facilities indicating their compliance with the Center’s regulations and requirements, prior to obtaining licenses issued by competent authorities according to their systems.
  • License: A written authorization issued by the Center to conduct any activity related to waste management, in accordance with what is specified in the Law and Regulation.
  • Permit Holder: The person who has obtained a permit from the Center.
  • Licensee: The person who has obtained a license from the Center.
  • Service Provider: The person licensed or permitted to practice any waste management activity.
  • Environment: Everything surrounding humans, animals, plants, or any living organism; including water, air, land, soil, living organisms, biodiversity, atmospheric gases, water bodies, and the inanimate matter, various forms of energy, habitats, natural processes, and their interactions.
  • Environmental Impact: Any negative or positive change affecting the environment as a result of practicing any activity.
  • Hazardous Waste: Waste classified as hazardous according to the provisions of the Law and Regulation, resulting from industrial or non-industrial activities containing toxic, flammable, reactive, corrosive, solvent, degreasing materials, oils, colored materials, sludge deposits, acids, or alkalis.
  • Non-Hazardous Waste: Waste that does not pose a risk to public health or the environment and cannot be classified as hazardous waste under any circumstances.
  • Inert Waste: Waste that does not undergo significant physical, chemical, or biological changes, does not dissolve, burn, or react physically or chemically, nor negatively affect materials it contacts in a way that pollutes the environment or poses a risk to public health or the environment. The leachability, pollutant components, and environmental toxicity of the leachate must be minimal and not pose a risk to surface or groundwater quality.
  • Municipal Solid Waste: Includes residential waste generated from usual household activities, whether collected mixed or separately; also includes commercial and administrative waste, which are wastes generated from other sources similar in nature and composition to residential waste.
  • Residential Waste: Includes, but is not limited to: paper, cardboard, glass, metals, plastics, food scraps, green waste, wood, textiles, packaging, damaged electrical and electronic equipment, and bulky waste such as mattresses and furniture pieces.
  • Commercial and Administrative Waste: Includes, but is not limited to: waste generated from economic activities that can be collected with residential waste based on their characteristics and quantities without adherence to special technical mechanisms. This includes waste from commercial activities such as crafts, commercial activities, traders’ activities, waste from public service activities such as administrative offices and healthcare facilities (non-hazardous healthcare waste), and other waste collected under the same conditions as residential waste.
  • Construction and Demolition Waste: All waste resulting from construction and demolition works, including waste from building construction, infrastructure works, demolition of buildings and infrastructure, maintenance, renovation, and rehabilitation of buildings and infrastructure. This includes, but is not limited to: tiles, concrete, rubble, subsoil and topsoil, excavation materials, quantities of sawn wood, iron, plastics, and some hazardous materials in certain cases.
  • Healthcare Waste: Waste generated from facilities providing various healthcare services, laboratories, pharmaceutical and vaccine production centers, veterinary treatment centers, research institutions, and home care and nursing.
  • Non-Hazardous Healthcare Waste: Waste containing materials similar to municipal waste, generated from administrative departments and general cleaning activities within healthcare facilities.
  • Hazardous Healthcare Waste: Waste generated from contaminated or potentially contaminated sources with infectious or chemical agents, posing a risk to individuals, society, and the environment during production, collection, handling, storage, transport, or disposal.
  • Marine Media Waste: Waste generated from all marine transport means and floating units used for marine activities, including ships, fishing boats, recreational boats, or marine sports vessels.
  • Agricultural Waste: Waste generated from activities and facilities related to crop and animal development, livestock production, slaughterhouses, forest management, tree and plant residues, fishing, and aquaculture. Agricultural waste may include inorganic waste resulting from these activities, such as chemical fertilizer residues, pesticide residues, feed bags, and others.
  • Green Waste: Waste resulting from accumulations of grass clippings, shrubs, leaves, tree trimmings, and other residues accumulated from the care of public and private gardens, green spaces along roadsides, and parks.
  • Industrial Waste: Waste generated from industrial activities or derived from manufacturing processes - including, but not limited to, mining waste - which may be solid, sludge (viscous waste), or liquid, and may be hazardous as defined under hazardous waste.
  • Mining Waste: Waste generated from exploration, extraction, processing, and storage of mineral and rock resources.
  • Sludge Waste: Sludge remaining from municipal or industrial wastewater treatment plants and any other wastewater treatment plants similar in composition to municipal or industrial wastewater; or sludge remaining from septic tanks and any other similar wastewater treatment equipment; or other types of sludge remaining from wastewater treatment plants, septic tanks, or similar wastewater treatment equipment.
  • Biodegradable Waste: Waste that can decompose aerobically or anaerobically.
  • Special Waste: Waste classified as special waste according to the technical regulations issued by the Center in this regard.
  • Waste Reduction: Minimizing waste production to the lowest possible level.
  • Products: Manufactured materials or goods derived from other materials for sale and consumption.
  • Product Reuse: Reusing materials and resources as much as possible before converting them into waste.
  • Collection: Collecting waste from storage containers of various sizes and types by trucks and designated machinery.
  • Transfer Stations: Facilities used at a stage in the waste transportation process to waste treatment or sorting facilities or to safe disposal sites, to reduce transportation costs.
  • Sorting: Separating waste components manually or mechanically, such as paper, glass, metals, and other components at transfer stations or sorting and treatment facilities, for the purpose of recycling or treatment.
  • Transportation: Transporting waste by approved means to transfer stations, treatment or sorting facilities, or approved landfills.
  • Transportation Document: The form determined by the competent authority to track waste from the point of production to the point of storage, treatment, or safe disposal.
  • Disposal Document: A document issued by service providers to the waste producer after completing the safe disposal process, indicating that the service provider has disposed of the waste in accordance with the Center’s regulations and requirements.
  • Recycling: The process of converting certain waste components into usable materials for recovery or use as raw materials in manufacturing processes.
  • Treatment: Using physical, biological, chemical means, or a combination thereof, or others; to alter waste characteristics to reduce volume, facilitate handling during reuse or recycling, extract some products, or remove organic and other pollutants; to reduce or benefit from some waste components or eliminate the potential harm to humans or the environment.
  • Storage: Temporarily preserving some or all waste components for later transport or utilization.
  • Incineration: Igniting waste components for disposal, either by open burning or controlled burning in special incinerators, with or without energy recovery.
  • Resource Recovery: The process of extracting energy, raw materials, or any other product from waste and reusing them.
  • Safe Disposal: The storage or safe dismantling of any type of waste by engineering methods that prevent causing any pollution or negative impact on the environment including soil, air, water, and biodiversity. These methods include engineered landfills, equipped incinerators, and other licensed technologies and facilities containing the necessary technical means to protect public health, safety, and the environment.
  • Electronic and Electrical Waste: Waste generated from equipment operating on electric currents or electromagnetic fields, including all components, subassemblies, and consumables that are part of the product at disposal. This includes, but is not limited to: phones, chargers, printers, computers, and electronic routers.
  • Extended Producer Responsibility: The legal and financial responsibility borne by the producer and importer of locally manufactured or imported products or those derived from other materials, prepared for sale or consumption, for managing residues, waste treatment, and safe disposal throughout their life cycle.
  • Extended Responsibility Products: Products identified in the regulations issued by the Center to define the main and subcategories of products imported, locally manufactured, or derived from other materials prepared for sale or consumption, subject to extended producer responsibility. These products include waste generated from electrical or electronic equipment, single-use plastics, end-of-life vehicles, packaging materials and products, batteries, used oils, and used tires.
  • Extended Responsibility Producer: The commercial establishment that produces extended responsibility products in the local market, imports extended responsibility products, or derives them from other materials to make them available in the local market, or uses these products or materials in its own operations, including producers who sell products via remote sales.
  • Circular Economy: An economic model aimed at keeping products and resources usable for the longest possible time by consuming products to their maximum usability and then making them recyclable and regenerable from their resources at the end of their life cycle.
  • Establishment: Any activity or entity engaged in industrial, commercial, agricultural, or service work.
  • Waste Management Facilities and/or Waste Management Sites: Facilities, sites, and locations that practice any waste management activity.
  • Source Separation of Waste: The act of the waste producer separating their waste into components determined according to the nature of the waste, to enable maximum resource recovery through reuse or recycling.
  • Waste Incineration Plant: Any fixed or mobile technical unit or equipment designated for thermal treatment of waste, with or without heat recovery.
  • Deposit and/or Custody: Placing waste with another person.
  • Producer: The person who produces products locally or externally or derives them from other materials for sale or consumption.
  • Due Diligence: The commitment of all persons to the regulations and requirements set by the Center and acting in accordance with the principles mentioned in Section (One) of Chapter (Four) of the Regulation.
  • Sensitive Receptors: Receptors likely to be significantly affected by the activity or project due to their geographic proximity or sensitive nature, including but not limited to: environmental components, living organisms, archaeological, cultural, and religious sites, community groups such as endangered species, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, residential complexes, and others.
  • Inspector(s): Persons appointed by a decision of the Minister to monitor violations of the provisions of the Law and Regulation, document them, and investigate them, collectively or individually.

• The regulation aims to clarify the executive frameworks of the law, including definitions and terminology, provisions for licenses and permits, extended producer responsibility, the waste value chain, contracting for waste management services, civil and criminal liability of service providers, qualification, compensations, regulation of voluntary initiatives, import and export of waste, waste management plans, violations, their control, penalties, inspection, and auditing.

• It is prohibited to engage in any activity related to waste management, including its collection, transportation, sorting, storage, treatment, recycling, import, export, and safe disposal, including post-care of waste disposal sites, except after obtaining the appropriate license or permit for that purpose.

The center issues licenses and permits according to the approved models after fulfilling the conditions and requirements and in accordance with the mechanism specified in this regulation and any special requirements and technical controls issued by the center.

• The center shall determine the duration of licenses and permits according to the standards it sets and in a manner consistent with the nature of the activity to be licensed or permitted, taking into consideration what would stimulate investment and ensure the sustainability of the sector.

• The license or permit shall be renewed and revoked in accordance with the provisions of Sections (Four) and (Five) of Chapter (Two) of the Regulation and the decisions and technical regulations issued by the Center.