In this chapter general background about the subject of this thesis and Oman is presented.
Motivation for the business model generation for Oman markets is discussed and the pre-sent state of waste management and general demographics in Oman are illustrated. Some reference figures and concepts from Finnish society and waste management are also pre-sented to make the cases comparable.
2.1 Oman
Oman, officially Sultanate of Oman, has the population of roughly 3 287 000. Thus, in terms of population, it is of same scale though smaller than Finland, which has population of rough 5 477 000. This is important, since the amount of waste generated annually can be considered to depend, at least in part, of the population size. In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) Oman has a GDP (2014 estimate) of $163,6 billion and current estimated growth rate of 3,4% annually, whereas Finland has a GDP (2014 estimate) of $221,5 billion and current estimated annual growth rate of -0,2%. This means that the GDP per capita in Oman is roughly $44 100, while in Finland it is $40 500. (CIA 2015)
Petroleum industry plays a strong role in Oman’s economy and exports, although Oman has been trying to reduce its dependency of fossil fuel industry by increasing its service and tourism industry (Harvard 2015). Still, for example, 100% of energy produced in Oman is produced via fossil fuels (CIA 2015). Thus utilizing waste in national energy production could help reduce the required fossil fuels in energy industry and release more of these resources for international export.
The population in Oman is focused on both northern and southern coast. In south, the population density is greatest in Salalah and this functions as the southern population center of Oman. In north, population is more evenly spread and there are numerous cities on the northern coast, for example, Muscat and Sohar. In north the mountain region in-hibits the population from spreading more south and inland. In addition, majority of Oman belongs to the Rub' al Khali sand desert, also known as “the empty quarter”, located in the southern Arabian Peninsula. This vast dry sand desert also causes the population to be centered on coastal regions.
Politically Oman has tried to remain neutral maintaining good relations to western coun-tries as well as to other councoun-tries on Arabian Peninsula. For this reason, Oman has func-tioned as an intermediator between, for example, United States and Iran.
Majority of the population of the Oman are Muslims, belonging to the Ibadi School of Islam. Ibadi is a minor school of Islam compared to, for example, Shia and Sunni schools.
Mainly, Ibadi is the majority religion only in Oman and Zanzibar. Ibadi has some differ-ences in opinions about the religion compared to more mainstream schools of Islam and in general Ibadi is considered to be conservative.
2.2 Present day waste management in Oman
At the moment, waste is treated in Oman mainly by landfilling. Some different methods for medical and healthcare waste and other special waste streams exist, but those streams are outside the scope of this thesis, as this thesis is focused on non-hazardous municipal waste and, in some extent, non-hazardous industrial waste as well. This is due to the rea-son that the company, for which the business model is generated for, operates on these segments of waste handling.
In Oman there are around 300 dumpsites. The number presented in municipal waste sur-vey is initially 366, but later in the text it is noted that some of these aren’t any more in operation (be'ah 2013). In one other source, there is stated to exist 317 official dumpsites (Said 2014). Thus, there is no accurate info over the true number, but the amount of active dumpsites is assessed to be around 100 in the waste survey (be'ah 2013). The technology level varies between the dumpsites, some of them being literally only dumpsites operating on very low volumes and a few of them being, in fact, well organized, planned, and en-gineered landfills operating on high volumes. On these enen-gineered landfills the quality and composition of the waste is also monitored.
Oman is planning on constructing more engineered or sanitary landfill sites as an answer to the increasing waste problem. Also, the collection equipment is stated to be insufficient and outdated (Said 2014). On the other hand, the general opinion is to try to take also in account the environmental factors in waste management. Consolidating the waste man-agement to a few well organized and environmentally sustainably constructed sanitary landfills would help to avoid environmental disasters caused by the poor waste manage-ment. On the other hand, landfilling, even when sanitary landfilling technology is used, does not necessarily result in end of waste state. Thus, the waste remains as waste in the ground for years and decades. Storing the waste does not give the society any advantage of the waste. However, it requires work, energy, land area, and still, it contains some risk for environmental disasters in future.
By the Royal Decree 46/2009, the responsibility of waste management is on Oman Envi-ronmental Services Holding Company (be'ah 2015). The Oman EnviEnvi-ronmental Services Holding Company has a brand name be’ah and thus it will later in the text be referred to as be’ah. In essence, be’ah owns all the waste produced in Oman and is the responsible party in disposing it properly and developing the waste management technology and con-cepts in Oman.
There are four landfills in Oman that are considered to be large in terms of volume and population served. Combined, these are estimated to serve 41% of all the population in Oman. In addition, there are 11 medium sized landfills. Combined together with the large landfills, these landfills are estimated to serve some 67% of all the population in Oman.
The 26 small dumpsites serve additional 23% of the population. Thus, only 10% of the population are served by the smallest dumpsites, categorized as very small. (be'ah 2013) One key note in the waste survey is that there is no existing system for recycling plastic bottles in Oman (be'ah 2013). For this reason, empty water and other drinking bottles usually end up in trash. When this is combined with the fact that the consumption of bottled water in Oman is high, the result is that the plastic concentration in the waste is relatively high. Incorporating a, for example, pant enforced recycling system like in Fin-land, could possibly help to decrease the amount of plastic landfilled (be'ah 2013). On the other hand, high plastic concentration in waste increases greatly its calorific value. This is due to the reason that the plastic has roughly the same calorific value as oil. In addition, the plastic does not absorb moisture and thus the more there is plastic in waste, the less there is room for moisture, which would lower the overall calorific value of the waste mass. This high calorific value waste would possibly enable high combustion efficiency and high overall electricity production efficiency.
2.3 FMEA
Finnish Material Efficiency Alliance, FMEA, is an alliance of companies offering waste and material efficiency technology and service. As a result, FMEA offers an integrated solution for waste management, utilizing as much of the potential in the waste in produc-ing customer value as possible. Since there are companies representproduc-ing several different technologies, FMEA waste management proposal can take into account various customer needs and requirements for waste management. The FMEA operational model is illus-trated in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2. FMEA operational model (adapted from FMEA 2015)
FMEA aims to deliver also socio-economic integration, research and development co-operation and service in addition to the actual technology and process, which are physi-cally delivered to the customer, as illustrated in Figure 2. This comprehensive package is designed to create more value for the customer by integrating the delivered technology into present processes and to ensure that the implementation of the waste management solution is comprehensive and not just the delivered technology or process. The compre-hensive waste management solution is illustrated in Figure 3 below. (FMEA 2015)
Figure 3. FMEA waste refining concept (adapted from FMEA 2015)
Originally, the idea for FMEA stemmed from the recognized high technology level of hazardous waste management in Finland. The potential for exporting of this technology and knowhow was understood and thus a consortium of relating companies was planned.
However, later the potential for exporting also the technology and knowhow of non-haz-ardous waste management was identified and then added to the concept. This led to FMEA, an alliance of various material efficiency companies and technologies. As a re-sult, FMEA can offer a comprehensive waste refining concept, as illustrated in Figure 3, with multiple beneficial final outcomes (FMEA 2015).