Dubai-based Marathon Environmental Solutions, an affiliate of Singapore’s MEA Environment, will be promoting solid waste-related handling products and solutions as well as exhibiting various waste containers and reduction systems such as waste compactors and balers, when it returns to the Big 5 this year.

Having earlier exhibited under a different business unit where it received good feedback, the company is convinced of exhibition’s appeal to visitors from all around the world.
“We have opened a commercial office in Dubai in November last year to support our Middle Eastern region activities. At the Big 5, we will be focusing on spreading the concept of waste transfer station systems, which is the next necessary step in waste management for any growing city in the Middle East. We have already introduced and realised our first transfer station project for the municipality of Al Ain in the UAE,” says Guillaume Will Kohen, regional sales manager of MEA Environment Solutions, Singapore.
“Sound waste management programmes are on today’s top priority lists for governments, municipalities and townships so our business is growing well. We registered good business levels last year and are looking at substantial growth this year too,” he adds.
With its head office in Singapore and production facilities in Singapore, Malaysia and India, Marathon Environmental Solutions is a mid-size company, with a turnover of $30 million and staffed with around 50 employees.
MEA Environment-Asia Pacific was incorporated to cater for the rising demand of waste management equipment and solutions in Asia and Middle East. Despite its relative youth, the company has emerged as one of the largest providers of waste solution systems and management for those regions, be it in the field of waste collections, transfer stations, recycling techniques, landfill technology or procurement of equipment. Today, MEA Environment serves well over 30 countries across Asia and the Middle East.
“At MEA Environment-Asia Pacific, we are doing our part to help rehabilitate our planet. As an environmental solutions provider, we are an organisation with extensive
experience in an industry that protects and preserves our natural resources and
surrounding environment,” says Kohen.
“For the past year, as part of our expansion plans, we have been focusing on relocating some of our expertise to local domestic markets where we operate. We have also opened a factory in India and signed a manufacturing partnership contract in Australia to expand our existing production capacity,” he adds.
Marathon Environmental Solutions already has an impressive project portfolio in the Gulf. The projects are varied in terms of size as well as client budget, each being tailor-made to the requirement and treated on an individual basis. It has already completed four transfer station sites in Al Ain in the UAE, in partnership with Nael Energy Company, as part of a larger project that includes an incineration plant and a sorting station for municipal wastes. It has also recently supplied waste compactor solutions for the new airport in Doha, and is working on a waste transfer station project in Qatar. The company is also now looking at projects in Bahrain that are expected to be completed in 2009, according Ramakant Dixit, country manager of Marathon Environmental Solutions.
The company’s business continuity plan is oriented toward transforming municipal waste to renewable energies and it will be actively investing in research and development activities (R&D) to sustain this new programme.
As a Singapore-based company where waste management activities have been a major concern for the past 20 years or so, MEA has gained a lot of project experience.
“The government cannot afford to dedicate too much land for landfill activities and is therefore always looking at ways to contain and minimize the wastes generated by the population and industries,” says Kohen. “The company’s R&D department in Singapore is looking forward to sharing some of its developments with partners in the Middle East in order to improve waste management activities globally.”
Commenting on what differentiates the company from its competitors, Kohn says: “As opposed to main environmental specialist companies around the world, we at MEA Environment and its partners are dedicated to the local markets where we seek to develop our business. Hence our value propositions to our regional clients are very much focused on developing solutions for specific local problems, rather than trying to impose foreign standards that may not necessarily apply to markets in the Middle East.”
Among the products that MEA Environment offers are the MEA-Marathon rear end loader compactor and the MEA-Marathon mobile and static compactors. The rear-end loader can be mounted on two axles and three or four axles and wheeled trucks with a GVW of 16,000 to 34,000 kg featuring a low tare on unladen weight, a high compaction ratio of 6:1 and an excellent weight distribution. It is also supplied and assembled with heavy-duty tailgate made for high tensile steel, a manual control override, fully electronic auto cycle system, emergency stop and a waste water tank at front of the body with flush among others.  The mobile and compact series includes the MRJ 250 series reinforced round body and the reinforced rectangular body.
Marathon Environmental Solutions will be present at Stand G304.