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In partnership with Cedar Environmental (CE), aka the
famous “garbage” man of Lebanon - Ziad Abichaker,
Beirut and Mount Lebanon saw the deployment of street
recycling bins to give citizens a means to sort and recycle
their waste. Since March 2018, the collection trucks
were equipped with portable electronic scales allowing
the organization proper quantification.
The bins are entirely locally made using recycled plastics. The initiative is sponsored by the private sector companies under their CSR programs where Bank Audi has fully supported the 14 actual paper collecting bins.
The project’s results are very powerful. In 1000 days of operations, this initiative was able to divert from the landfills:
2.8 million water/soda plastic bottles, 725 thousand glass bottles and recuperated enough paper and cartons equivalent in pulp weight to 897 trees.
The locations are either in a supermarket parking lot or under the auspices of a municipality. Both types of locations have proved to have great “recuperation” potential.
Disposable, single use water/soda bottles are the largest contributors in plastic pollution, however their plastic PET is highly recyclable (more than once) and is a valuable resource if channeled to the recycling factories.
The drawback with PET packaging is its bulky volume, the bins are 2000 liters in volume and can only hold a maximum of 60 kilos of bottles, the current market value of these 60 kilos is only 84,000 L.L. they would still need to be transported to a sorting facility and baled to be able to sell them to recycling factories. But this is the only way for dealing with them and not having them end up in forests or beaches. This is the reason the project relied on sponsors to cover the transportation and labor costs, which could not be covered by the “market value” of collected recyclables.
Glass is also a problem in Lebanon as the country has practically lost its ability to recycle glass. The only two factories that accept transparent glass only are a 2-hour drive from Beirut and they cannot afford to pay for the transportation since they get plenty of glass from their surrounding communities for free. So recycling glass is a cost here with no offset whatsoever. Again, the other options are not viable, glass in forests is a fire hazard, on beaches a major pollutant, and in landfills a major loss of resources.
Paper and cartons are very valuable for local recycling industries but also are a very valuable material for export to help bring in hard currency.
The all-time champion location is the Fahed Supervalue market in Zalka, proving that concerned citizens would bring their recyclables to their shopping market even without an incentive payback.
It is interesting to note that the top 10 rankings include 9 locations on municipal grounds without any direct supervision and yet citizens made heavy usage of these bins also entirely without any payback incentives but to only contribute to a cleaner, safer living environment/city/ village.
It is to be noted here, that Badaro location which was rendered inactive in June 2019 still ranked 11th. In next steps, CE will request the return of the recycling bins to Badaro since the residents of the area are highly conscious of the importance of proper sorting. The project is definitely not without problems: The major issue is the fact that some people sort their waste at home and drive to the bins but instead of placing their recyclable inside, leave their bags by the bins.
Is it a lack of awareness? of ethics? responsibility? It is not clear why would someone go through the trouble of sorting at home, driving to the bins locations and just not take an extra 5-8 minutes to use the system properly.
The bins are entirely locally made using recycled plastics. The initiative is sponsored by the private sector companies under their CSR programs where Bank Audi has fully supported the 14 actual paper collecting bins.
The project’s results are very powerful. In 1000 days of operations, this initiative was able to divert from the landfills:
2.8 million water/soda plastic bottles, 725 thousand glass bottles and recuperated enough paper and cartons equivalent in pulp weight to 897 trees.
The locations are either in a supermarket parking lot or under the auspices of a municipality. Both types of locations have proved to have great “recuperation” potential.
Disposable, single use water/soda bottles are the largest contributors in plastic pollution, however their plastic PET is highly recyclable (more than once) and is a valuable resource if channeled to the recycling factories.
The drawback with PET packaging is its bulky volume, the bins are 2000 liters in volume and can only hold a maximum of 60 kilos of bottles, the current market value of these 60 kilos is only 84,000 L.L. they would still need to be transported to a sorting facility and baled to be able to sell them to recycling factories. But this is the only way for dealing with them and not having them end up in forests or beaches. This is the reason the project relied on sponsors to cover the transportation and labor costs, which could not be covered by the “market value” of collected recyclables.
Glass is also a problem in Lebanon as the country has practically lost its ability to recycle glass. The only two factories that accept transparent glass only are a 2-hour drive from Beirut and they cannot afford to pay for the transportation since they get plenty of glass from their surrounding communities for free. So recycling glass is a cost here with no offset whatsoever. Again, the other options are not viable, glass in forests is a fire hazard, on beaches a major pollutant, and in landfills a major loss of resources.
Paper and cartons are very valuable for local recycling industries but also are a very valuable material for export to help bring in hard currency.
The all-time champion location is the Fahed Supervalue market in Zalka, proving that concerned citizens would bring their recyclables to their shopping market even without an incentive payback.
It is interesting to note that the top 10 rankings include 9 locations on municipal grounds without any direct supervision and yet citizens made heavy usage of these bins also entirely without any payback incentives but to only contribute to a cleaner, safer living environment/city/ village.
It is to be noted here, that Badaro location which was rendered inactive in June 2019 still ranked 11th. In next steps, CE will request the return of the recycling bins to Badaro since the residents of the area are highly conscious of the importance of proper sorting. The project is definitely not without problems: The major issue is the fact that some people sort their waste at home and drive to the bins but instead of placing their recyclable inside, leave their bags by the bins.
Is it a lack of awareness? of ethics? responsibility? It is not clear why would someone go through the trouble of sorting at home, driving to the bins locations and just not take an extra 5-8 minutes to use the system properly.
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