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Compliance / Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Waste Management Law

Since November 2021, every business in Saudi Arabia that produces waste — which is all of them — has been a regulated waste producer with legal obligations. Non-compliance carries some of the heaviest environmental penalties in the region, and liability can reach you even when a contractor does the damage.

Reviewed · 2026-08-01|2021 Waste Management Law · MWAN · MEWA

The law, in brief

The Waste Management Law was issued by Royal Decree on 13 August 2021 and came into force on 14 November 2021. It runs to 38 articles, replaced the 2013 Municipal Solid Waste Management Law, and governs the entire waste lifecycle — collection, transport, sorting, storage, treatment, recycling, import, export, and disposal, plus civil and criminal liability. It applies to businesses in every sector.

Who enforces it

The National Center for Waste Management (MWAN), established in 2019 and headquartered in Riyadh, is the primary regulator. It issues licences and permits, sets standards per waste category, imposes fines and administrative penalties, and oversees the circular-economy principle. The Ministry of Environment, Water & Agriculture (MEWA) governs the broader environmental framework.

Critically, MWAN licences are activity-specific: a contractor licensed to transport waste is not thereby licensed to treat or dispose of it. No waste-management activity may be conducted without the relevant MWAN authorisation.

Your core obligations

01Segregate at the point of generation. Mixing hazardous and non-hazardous streams is itself a violation.
02Store waste only in approved locations meeting MWAN’s environmental controls.
03Use only MWAN-licensed providers for transport, treatment, and disposal.
04Keep accurate documentation — manifests, transport records, and (for hazardous streams) characterisation reports.

The penalties are real — and the liability follows you

Under Article 29, storing, burning, treating, dumping, or disposing of waste in a way that threatens public health or the environment can bring up to 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to SAR 30 million (roughly USD 8 million), or both. Courts can add daily continuation fines and can double fines for repeat offences within three years (Article 31). Other breaches can reach SAR 10 million and licence suspension of up to six months (Article 32).

Maximum penalty · Article 29
SAR 30M

Up to 10 years’ imprisonment, or both.

The provision that catches most businesses off guard: joint and several liability. If you hand your waste to an unlicensed contractor and they dump it illegally, you are legally responsible for the environmental damage alongside them. You cannot escape liability by pointing at the contractor.

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Sources: 2021 Waste Management Law · MWAN · MEWA. Confirm current regulations before relying on them.