A $100-million project to produce one-sided coated duplex boards from recycled waste paper is being planned in Saudi Arabia.

According to Fahd Al Obeikan, chairman of the Riyadh-based Obeikan Industrial Investment Group, the project jointly financed by Obeikan and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund will have a total production capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year (tpy) that could be expanded to 160,000 tpy at some time in the future.

An independent study estimates that only five per cent of the total paper waste is recycled in the Kingdom as against 70 per cent in the Scandinavian countries. Paper waste per head in the Kingdom is about 2.5 kg, much higher than in the US.

Al Obeikan said the products would be marketed within the GCC and Middle East and North African countries.