RIYADH, 21 April — The Riyadh-based National Lead Smelting Co. (Rasass) has won a prestigious environmental award set up by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. The award, given for the first time to an industrial entity set up along environmental lines, was presented to Rasass Executive Manager Anas Suliman Hafiz at a glittering function in Muscat yesterday.
“We thank the GCC led by its Secretary-General Jameel Al-Hujailan, and all the jury members of the prize-distribution committee for selecting Rasass for this prestigious honor,” Hafiz said here yesterday.
He said Rasass, an affiliate of the National Industrialization Company (NIC), is a state-of-the-art facility for recycling scrap car batteries.
“We are the pioneers in the field of recycling of scrap acid-filled car batteries in this region and would like to stop the treatment of hazardous material by small and backyard smelters, who pose a great risk to public life and pollute the environment in a very unconscious manner,” Hafiz said.
The Rasass facility has treated more than 12,500,000 pieces of lead acid batteries (ULABs) so far.
He said the idea of establishing a ULAB recycling plant was conceived in order to prevent contamination of the country’s precious ground water and to protect the environment from hazards of storing huge quantities of ULABs. By recycling these ULABs, the company was able to convert 20,000 tons of sulfuric acid into a useful substance — sodium sulfate.
Hafiz said the GCC award would give Rasass “the motivation to strive harder toward setting up better standards for the preservation of environment”.
The GCC General Secretariat has announced annual prizes for works encouraging individuals or group initiatives contributing to the protection of environment. It has identified four areas for the prizes — the best research on environment, the best inventory on environment, a work on the status of environment and the best industry, which complies with the strict environmental guidelines.
Each winner gets a cash award of SR50,000 and a commendation certificate. The prize is funded by private companies, individuals and organizations, which have been working in the field.
