المملكة: Preventing financial gain and mandatory training for volunteers… new controls for waste initiatives

The National Center for Waste Management has introduced controls and requirements for volunteer initiatives in the waste management sector, with the aim of organizing volunteer initiatives in the sector and providing the necessary guidance and training for volunteers to ensure their ability to deal with waste in safe and effective ways within the framework of the transition to a circular and sustainable economy.

The most important terms and conditions

The Center specified the controls and requirements for non-profit, private and governmental sector initiatives and for obtaining the necessary approvals to start the initiative’s work by the Centre, as it stipulated that the work plan be submitted to the Center in which the scope and objectives of the work are determined, the justifications for the initiative, the targeted geographical scope, the main milestones and the targeted performance indicators.

The Center stressed the importance of determining the type and quantity of targeted waste, the implementation schedule and project outcomes, in addition to the risk and solutions plan, the “interim and final” reporting plan, the financial budget, the participating parties and their roles and responsibilities, and providing the media content accompanying the initiative.

Prohibition of financial gain

The regulations prohibited the goal of the volunteer initiative to gain financially in any way without the center’s approval, stressing that volunteers for the initiative receive appropriate training to deal with the identified waste.
The regulations stipulate that the waste that is the subject of a voluntary initiative must be transferred or transferred to a service provider licensed by the National Waste Management Center or to the state by placing it in one of the private or public waste management facilities. If it is placed in one of the private facilities, its ownership is automatically transferred to the service provider.
The regulations stated that approval for the private sector should be through an official letter, within 15 working days after processing the approval request, addressed to the initiative proponent, stating the time and geographical framework of the initiative and all other obligations, in order to ensure compliance when starting the initiative.
The regulations obligated the initiative proponent to fulfill all requirements, and to take into account the involvement of the non-profit sector, indicating that when one of the requirements is not met, observations can be submitted or meetings can be held that will ensure that the requirements are met.