Within Muscat Governorate’s efforts to regulate the activity of scrap’s collection and dealing; Regulation No.(67/2022) was issued to regulate this activity. It that aims to establish a legal framework that ensures this activity’s regulation according to environmental and security standards, and removes uncontrolled practices that affect the environment and society negatively.
In this investigation, we review the regulation’s objectives and requirements, and discuss the challenges that face its implementation. As well as, the impact of the practice of scrap collection and dealing in residential areas. By reviewing different opinions, we provide a full vision on this regulation’s role in addressing the current situation and taking noticeable changes in the scrap’s regulation.
A Step to Organization and Outlining
This regulation comes as a step to organize and outline the practice of scrap collection and dealing in the Muscat Governorate. It pursues to control this activity and achieve a balance between the society’s interests and its workers’ interests. The regulation aims to limit the unplanned scrap collection practice and eliminate hidden trade, and guaranteeing the scrap dealing and collection in an organized and safe manner. It contributes to regulate the relationship between scrap collectors and regulatory authorities, and achieve the principles of transparency and accountability in its practicing.
Abdul Rahman Al Hinai, the Municipal Council’s member of the Legal Committee, explained that the regulations came to regulate scrap collection and dealing’s practice in Muscat Governorate in terms of specifying its practice in industrial areas. In addition, it is prohibited to travel around for scrap collection from residential areas. This is within a framework that protects private property from any contraventions that may result from the scrap collection vehicles’ movements. Al-Hinai confirmed this regulation to control scrap collection activity and the necessary controls’ offer to ensure individuals’ safety and limit the negative effects resulting from scrap.
License Requirements
Anyone who practices the scrap activity in the governorate is required to gain a license from the Muscat Governorate. The governorate will study the license application to practice it, and decide on it within a period not exceeding 30days from the date the application completes the required documents and data. If the application is rejected, the rejection decision must be logical, according to Article (5), Chapter 2, license requirements and procedures. The regulations also included an importance of its practice in a licensed and equipped headquarters in specific industrial plans, and practicing it within the facility borders. Accordingly, it is prohibited for the licensed person to practice the activity and his employees to walk around residential areas for the scrap collection, or dealing in it by any ways.
Practices and Challenges
Although the purposes that the regulation pursues to achieve, it faces some challenges in following up and observing the negative scrap collectors’ practices, there are violations that include vehicles walk in residential areas without considering the controls specified by the regulations, and escaping expatriate practicing workers. This requires the community to play a role to observe and report violations if possible.
Public Security Disturbing
The regulation came in reply to the negative phenomena related with unregulated scrap collection, which caused security, environmental and economic harms. Scrap collection vehicles have become a source of nuisance to residents by constantly honking their annoying horns and frequently walking around residential areas. In this context, Fayza bint Saeed Al Rashidi, the Social Committee member in Bawshar, explained that the frequent frequency of scrap collection trucks and expatriate workers in residential areas tells the families’ movement in homes, which constitutes a security concern. Some workers’ awareness about the homes’ details, including entrances and exits, when they receive scrap increases this concern. For his part, citizen Abdullahbin Muhammad Al-Humaidi stressed the setting specific times’ necessity to practice it in residential areas, considering residents’ rest times, to reduce the nuisance associated with these activities.
Supervision and Penalties
In this regard, Abdul Rahman Al-Hinai, the Municipal Council member of the Legal Committee, explained that “Resolution No.(67/2022) regarding the regulations regulating the collection and dealing scrap in Muscat Governorate, forces an administrative fine of 500 Omani Riyals on licensees in the occurrence that their workers walk in residential areas to collect scrap in regulations’ violation. As for the proposals that would reduce the negative effects on public security, Al Rashidi indicated, “the scrap collection is a profession and an income source for some Omani citizens. Therefore, I proposed allocating specific sites to collect scrap from homes, with collection only arranged from those sites”. She also proposed creating an electronic application that would enable homeowners to submit requests to dispose of scrap and set appropriate dates for it to be received by workers in this field. This will make it easier for everyone to control the appropriate date and save time and effort. She stressed the necessary limit to the expatriate workers’ employment in this sector and employ Omani citizens. As well as, the necessary tools and equipment’s offer to help them carry and transport the devices. For his part, Al-Hinai suggested that these activities’ owners should develop their works using smart applications that would make it easier to identify the scrap owners’ requests with changing the scrap collection vehicles’ appearance to be more appropriate and avoid walking in residential areas. Al Hinai stressed that scrap collection is one of the waste recycling types, and it is an important economic sector to many countries. Therefore, he called on the specialized authorities to give it more care and development.