We are taking the Green Glass Recycling Initiative - Lebanon (GGRIL) to the next level of self sustainability. We are crowdfunding to buy a pickup truck. Your help is highly appreciated. Please click on image below for more info.
An adventure in waste management, composting and environmental protection. A no non-sense approach to demystify recycling.
Showing posts with label Waste Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waste Management. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2014
Monday, September 1, 2014
L’énergie recyclable de Ziad Abichaker
Article published in the daily Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-LeJour on Sep. 1st 2014 (in French)
"Il est à la fois passionné, poète à sa façon, un idéaliste écolo qui a su transformer ses utopies en réalité. Mettre son savoir au service d'un pays qu'il aime, et qu'il aime vert et (plus) intelligent. Ziad Abichaker, fondateur et CEO de la société de recherches et de développement Cedar Environmental, recycle les déchets des municipalités et les transforme. Il en a même fait des verres, cruches et autres vases en verre soufflé sous le label Green Glass Recycling." more
"Il est à la fois passionné, poète à sa façon, un idéaliste écolo qui a su transformer ses utopies en réalité. Mettre son savoir au service d'un pays qu'il aime, et qu'il aime vert et (plus) intelligent. Ziad Abichaker, fondateur et CEO de la société de recherches et de développement Cedar Environmental, recycle les déchets des municipalités et les transforme. Il en a même fait des verres, cruches et autres vases en verre soufflé sous le label Green Glass Recycling." more
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
GREEN GLASS RECYCLING INITIATIVE - LEBANON (GGRIL) - Photo Blog
If slideshow is moving too quickly, click on pause and use arrows to advance to the next slide
Press coverage of GGRIL:
DailyStar - Beirut : From used and shattered glass to works of art. By Brooke Anderson
L'Orient-LeJour - Beyrouth: Au Liban, une initiative recyclage intelligente et design. Anne Ilcinkas
The Cultural Thing - UK: The Art of Recycling Glass in Lebanon. By Gary Sullivan
Rasseef22 - Pan Arab Online Publication: Recycling Traditions in Lebanon. By Kaylyn Hlavaty
Eco-Terrorism - TV Program: BAAL Collection Green Glass Recycling Initiative. By Aly Sleem.
NOW - Online Publication: Bottles Up!! Beirut upcycling initiatives tackle Lebanon's waste problems. By Alberto Mucci
Official Facebook page of GGRIL: Green Glass Recycling Initiative - Lebanon
Official Facebook page of GGRIL: Green Glass Recycling Initiative - Lebanon
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Executive Challenge: Radio Interview on VDL 100.5 FM January 10 2014 (Arabic)
Executive Challenge is a weekly program on VDL radio station 100.5 FM in collaboration with EXECUTIVE magazine, hosted by Pamela Ibrahim Kosseifi.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Interview With BEIRUT GREEN PROJECT
Last week we went to WonderEight‘s new offices in Mkalles for a meeting (That’s right, we’re cooking something up!) and fell in love with their small green terrace. Two things caught our attention, and they both turned out to be the work of Ziad AbiChaker from Cedar Environmental: The E-Room and the green walls. [READ MORE]
Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Saida Trash Mountain Saga
This catastrophe has been on going since 1982. Needless to say when incomptence coupled with corruption & greed can't lead but to such disastrous results. In this video, one is to notice the huge divide between the official stance: "no worries, we have this issue solved and very soon all will be rosy and good", and the civil society & professionals: "This has been dragging for so long and the results to show for are way way below par, and we highly doubt that this solution will ever be workable in the long run".
Well watch this video and judge for yourselves.
Well watch this video and judge for yourselves.
تستمر كارثة مكب جبل صيدا منذ 1982. لا شك إن عدم الكفاءة، والفساد والطمع لا يمكن أن يؤدوا إلا لهذه النتائج الكارثية. في هذا التقرير، على المشاهد أن يلحظ الهوة العميقة بين خطاب الجهات الرسمية وجهات المجتمع الأهلي والخبراء. فيما تصرّ الجهات الرسمية أن معضلة الجبل والمعمل الجديد قد حُلت وأن النتائج ستظهر قريباً وستجري الأمور على ما يرام، يصرّ المجتمع الأهلي وبعض الخبراء على أن الحل تأخر كثيراً وما هو مطروح من تقنيات لا تبعث بالإطمئنان على إستادمة العمل على المدى الطويل.ـ
شاهدوا هذا التقرير وإحكموا بأنفسكم.ـ (صُوّر هذا التقرير في كانون الأول 2011 ولتاريخ عرضه لم يبدأ أي عمل فعلي على أرض المكب أو المعمل)ـ
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Trash Talk: The Possibility of Recycling Lebanon's Garbage
Via the outpost
In this episode we look at how to improve Lebanon's waste management cycle. First, we get insight on how garbage disposal In Lebanon works from Ziad Abi Chaker who is pioneering ways of turning municipal trash into treasure.
Then, we talk to the co-founder of F.E.R.N. International, Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli, an organization that is working with restaurants to improve their environmental impact by introducing a recycling system in their kitchens.
Then, we talk to the co-founder of F.E.R.N. International, Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli, an organization that is working with restaurants to improve their environmental impact by introducing a recycling system in their kitchens.
- Music
- Floyd the Locsmif - Welcome
Sesame Street - I Love Trash
The Simpsons - The Garbage Man Can
Ayo - Help Is Coming
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The Cedar Environmental Waste Management Model
Interview at World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC - September 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
EARTHRISE: Trashing Lebanon (Al Jazeera English)
The following documentary was aired on Al Jazeera english as part of the EARTHRISE environmental show.
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Friday, August 10, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
In Lebanon: Building Resource Recovery Capabilities and a Prefab House
by on JULY 17, 2012
At dMASS.net, we generally focus on resource input reductions rather than resource recovery or pollution and waste prevention for several reasons:
- Recycling and waste reduction efforts are widely reported elsewhere.
- Recycling often makes resource waste more economical. A variety of businesses and public entities become dependent on maintaining a flow of resource wastes in order to survive.
- Ultimately, the only way to dramatically reduce waste is to reduce resource use in the first place.
Yet there is no question that using resources mined above grade uses significantly fewer resources than manufacturing products with virgin resources. And once in awhile a project comes along that is so outstanding it merits our attention. For example, Cedar Environmental of Lebanon, founded and headed by Ziad Abichaker, developed Eco-Prefab 1.0, an extraordinary prefabricated house constructed with 100 percent recycled materials.
 |
| Eco-Prefab 1.0 was built using 146,000 plastic bags. (Photo: Ziad Abichaker.) |
I met Ziad last year when we were co-presenters at the Eco Meda conference on waste management in Barcelona. Ziad has been building the social enterprise Cedar Environmental by engaging the citizens of many small Lebanese communities in resource recovery. No such efforts have ever been undertaken in these communities, and there is little or no waste management or industrial infrastructure to support such an enterprise. Yet he and his colleagues are creating a viable and growing business based on a commitment to the environment. Moreover, they’re transforming resources into products that meet the needs of the citizens of those communities. Ziad, an engineer, is designing the technology for an entire local resource ecosystem.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Lebanon’s waste problem: A ticking time bomb
June 16, 2012 01:36 AM
By Martin Armstrong
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on June 16, 2012, on page 3.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-16/177062-lebanons-waste-problem-a-ticking-time-bomb.ashx#ixzz1zH97MEyY
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
By Martin Armstrong
| The Daily Star |
BEIRUT: Fifi Kallab of Byblos Ecologia has been campaigning for improvements in Lebanon’s waste management system since the 1980s. She sighs as she recounts years of failed attempts to push the government to adopt policies that would arrest the country’s slide into environmental disaster.
“The government has no strategy [for] confronting the current waste problem,” says Kallab. “They push it to the back of their minds and agenda. They simply ignore the problem.”
In Lebanon, responsibility for waste management is assigned to municipalities. But few municipalities are equipped with sorting facilities and recycling units, and where units do exist most have ceased to function due to a lack of funding or technical expertise.
Consequently, there are over 700 illegal and unsafe dump sites in the country, according to a 2010 report by the Italian Coordination Office in Beirut. It is estimated that 40 percent of garbage is consigned to such makeshift dumps, with a further 50 percent disposed of in legal but generally unsanitary landfills. A mere 10 percent of the country’s waste is recycled.
“The main problem with the current municipal waste management system is that there is no legislation [governing] it,” observes an exasperated Wael Hmaidan, board member of environmental NGO IndyAct.
“Lebanon is one of the few countries in the world that have no legislation,” he says. “Correspondingly, the system is different from one area to another, with no real monitoring or accountability.”
Hmaidan emphasizes that since there is no accountability, cleaning contractors such as Sukleen and Sukomi, both part of the Averda group responsible for waste management in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, have little incentive to improve their recycling and composting efforts.
“Most of Lebanon’s municipalities dump waste randomly around the country,” laments Hmaidan.
But some people, such as Ziad Abichaker, founder of Cedar Environmental, remain unconvinced that legislation to regulate waste management would ameliorate the situation.
Abichaker argues that enforcing the relevant laws would be fraught with difficulty: “Accountability means introducing measures to tackle corruption, and there is a lot of corruption. A lot of people, influential people, could go to jail.”
Cedar Environmental aspires to provide 100 percent environmentally safe treatment of municipal solid waste, avoiding incineration and landfilling. The company currently operates 11 waste treatment plants across the country, boasts the capacity to process over 50,000 tons of waste annually, and produces an organically certified compost called Vieverte.
But according to Abichaker, in its quest to expand its operations, Cedar Environmental continues to be beset by obstacles at every turn. He claims that this is the case even though the waste management services offered by the company are better for the environment and cheaper than current methods.
“Unless you are politically affiliated,” says Abichaker, “it is tough to establish and expand a business.”
“The only times we have been able to build plants are in situations when municipalities have no choice because they are running out of space to land-fill,” he adds.
Despite the fact that Sukleen and Sukomi are paid with public funds, the terms of the contract between their owner and the government remain secret. An initial five-year contract was signed with Averda in 1995 for collection and sweeping by Sukleen, and two contracts were signed with Averda in 1998 for composting and landfilling by Sukomi.
In 2010, March 8 ministers together with those close to President Michel Sleiman voted against renewing the Averda contract unless the terms of the company’s agreement with the government were disclosed to the Cabinet.
Yet despite claims that other companies could do the job for half the price and should be allowed to enter a bidding process, Averda’s contract was renewed. Saad Hariri, who was prime minister at the time, argued it was too late to look for alternatives, as Sukleen’s contract had already expired.
“The problem is not Sukleen but the initial contract between Sukleen and the government,” states Kallab, who claims Sukleen is paid around $135 for every ton of rubbish collected. She maintains that the cost should be closer to $50.
“Why were they paid so much for garbage disposal in the first place?” Kallab asks, adding that if the government contracted with other companies whose services proved subpar, the country could always revert to Sukleen.
Abichaker says that by failing to establish viable alternatives to the current waste management system, the government is providing Averda with leverage when it comes to negotiating new contracts.
“When the current Sukleen and Sukomi contracts run out this could be a real crisis,” Abichaker warns.
“They could be in a position to say either you pay us the same or we are not picking up the rubbish. It could be the Naples situation all over again,” he says, referring to the Naples waste management crisis which peaked in the summer of 2008 and remains largely unresolved.
Abichaker and Kallab also agree that foreign aid and investment in the waste management system can be misguided, as donor countries and investors often fail to take into account infrastructural and economic constraints.
“Wastewater treatment is a prime example,” says Kallab. “There was huge foreign investment to build the plants, but they haven’t even been connected to the sewage system.”
Abichaker points out that the landscape is littered with the carcasses of such failed projects.
“In addition to the wastewater debacle, there is also the example of the anaerobic digestion plant in Sidon,” Abichaker points out. “It cost $30 million to build and they can’t even get 1 kilo of compost or 1 liter of bio-gas out of it. It’s been there since 1999 and they can’t even use it.”
Incineration is another problem. Recently, residents of the northern coastal town of Shekka protested following reports that Environment Minister Nazim Khoury would sign a request by the municipality to operate an incinerator for household and medical waste.
Earlier, Khoury granted permission to the Shekka municipality to operate the incinerator on a trial basis, despite its emission of carcinogenic dioxins and toxic ash in an area already polluted by local cement factories.
A report by the Directorate-General of the Environment Ministry highlighted administrative irregularities in the Shekka municipal council’s decision to buy the incinerator.
Both Abichaker and Kallab oppose incineration, as does the Zero Waste Coalition in Lebanon, a group of more than 80 NGOs including aforementioned IndyAct.
“Incinerators have no economic or environmental benefits,” argues Hmaidan. “The amount of energy they produce is negligible, but incineration companies use this argument to market their technology.”
Abichaker seconds Hmaidan’s argument, and adds: “Even the most advanced societies are moving away from incineration. Regardless of its effect on the environment, we do not have the technical culture or financial resources for it to work. It’s as naive as thinking you can implement democracy overnight in Iraq.”
“The government has no strategy [for] confronting the current waste problem,” says Kallab. “They push it to the back of their minds and agenda. They simply ignore the problem.”
In Lebanon, responsibility for waste management is assigned to municipalities. But few municipalities are equipped with sorting facilities and recycling units, and where units do exist most have ceased to function due to a lack of funding or technical expertise.
Consequently, there are over 700 illegal and unsafe dump sites in the country, according to a 2010 report by the Italian Coordination Office in Beirut. It is estimated that 40 percent of garbage is consigned to such makeshift dumps, with a further 50 percent disposed of in legal but generally unsanitary landfills. A mere 10 percent of the country’s waste is recycled.
“The main problem with the current municipal waste management system is that there is no legislation [governing] it,” observes an exasperated Wael Hmaidan, board member of environmental NGO IndyAct.
“Lebanon is one of the few countries in the world that have no legislation,” he says. “Correspondingly, the system is different from one area to another, with no real monitoring or accountability.”
Hmaidan emphasizes that since there is no accountability, cleaning contractors such as Sukleen and Sukomi, both part of the Averda group responsible for waste management in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, have little incentive to improve their recycling and composting efforts.
“Most of Lebanon’s municipalities dump waste randomly around the country,” laments Hmaidan.
But some people, such as Ziad Abichaker, founder of Cedar Environmental, remain unconvinced that legislation to regulate waste management would ameliorate the situation.
Abichaker argues that enforcing the relevant laws would be fraught with difficulty: “Accountability means introducing measures to tackle corruption, and there is a lot of corruption. A lot of people, influential people, could go to jail.”
Cedar Environmental aspires to provide 100 percent environmentally safe treatment of municipal solid waste, avoiding incineration and landfilling. The company currently operates 11 waste treatment plants across the country, boasts the capacity to process over 50,000 tons of waste annually, and produces an organically certified compost called Vieverte.
But according to Abichaker, in its quest to expand its operations, Cedar Environmental continues to be beset by obstacles at every turn. He claims that this is the case even though the waste management services offered by the company are better for the environment and cheaper than current methods.
“Unless you are politically affiliated,” says Abichaker, “it is tough to establish and expand a business.”
“The only times we have been able to build plants are in situations when municipalities have no choice because they are running out of space to land-fill,” he adds.
Despite the fact that Sukleen and Sukomi are paid with public funds, the terms of the contract between their owner and the government remain secret. An initial five-year contract was signed with Averda in 1995 for collection and sweeping by Sukleen, and two contracts were signed with Averda in 1998 for composting and landfilling by Sukomi.
In 2010, March 8 ministers together with those close to President Michel Sleiman voted against renewing the Averda contract unless the terms of the company’s agreement with the government were disclosed to the Cabinet.
Yet despite claims that other companies could do the job for half the price and should be allowed to enter a bidding process, Averda’s contract was renewed. Saad Hariri, who was prime minister at the time, argued it was too late to look for alternatives, as Sukleen’s contract had already expired.
“The problem is not Sukleen but the initial contract between Sukleen and the government,” states Kallab, who claims Sukleen is paid around $135 for every ton of rubbish collected. She maintains that the cost should be closer to $50.
“Why were they paid so much for garbage disposal in the first place?” Kallab asks, adding that if the government contracted with other companies whose services proved subpar, the country could always revert to Sukleen.
Abichaker says that by failing to establish viable alternatives to the current waste management system, the government is providing Averda with leverage when it comes to negotiating new contracts.
“When the current Sukleen and Sukomi contracts run out this could be a real crisis,” Abichaker warns.
“They could be in a position to say either you pay us the same or we are not picking up the rubbish. It could be the Naples situation all over again,” he says, referring to the Naples waste management crisis which peaked in the summer of 2008 and remains largely unresolved.
Abichaker and Kallab also agree that foreign aid and investment in the waste management system can be misguided, as donor countries and investors often fail to take into account infrastructural and economic constraints.
“Wastewater treatment is a prime example,” says Kallab. “There was huge foreign investment to build the plants, but they haven’t even been connected to the sewage system.”
Abichaker points out that the landscape is littered with the carcasses of such failed projects.
“In addition to the wastewater debacle, there is also the example of the anaerobic digestion plant in Sidon,” Abichaker points out. “It cost $30 million to build and they can’t even get 1 kilo of compost or 1 liter of bio-gas out of it. It’s been there since 1999 and they can’t even use it.”
Incineration is another problem. Recently, residents of the northern coastal town of Shekka protested following reports that Environment Minister Nazim Khoury would sign a request by the municipality to operate an incinerator for household and medical waste.
Earlier, Khoury granted permission to the Shekka municipality to operate the incinerator on a trial basis, despite its emission of carcinogenic dioxins and toxic ash in an area already polluted by local cement factories.
A report by the Directorate-General of the Environment Ministry highlighted administrative irregularities in the Shekka municipal council’s decision to buy the incinerator.
Both Abichaker and Kallab oppose incineration, as does the Zero Waste Coalition in Lebanon, a group of more than 80 NGOs including aforementioned IndyAct.
“Incinerators have no economic or environmental benefits,” argues Hmaidan. “The amount of energy they produce is negligible, but incineration companies use this argument to market their technology.”
Abichaker seconds Hmaidan’s argument, and adds: “Even the most advanced societies are moving away from incineration. Regardless of its effect on the environment, we do not have the technical culture or financial resources for it to work. It’s as naive as thinking you can implement democracy overnight in Iraq.”
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-16/177062-lebanons-waste-problem-a-ticking-time-bomb.ashx#ixzz1zH97MEyY
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Friday, June 8, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Lebanon’s 2012 Meat Crisis: Only as Rotten as You Want It to Be!
May 2, 2012
John Jeha – Hay Khabriyeh!
John Jeha – Hay Khabriyeh!
Reports surfaced few weeks ago about rotten meat in the Lebanese market. It was widely reported that a number of companies responsible for Lebanon’s meat imports had been distributing rotten Brazilian beef throughout the market causing a number people to fall ill. Lebanese authorities were swift on cracking down on meat distributors and in the process found two warehouses stocked with 300 tons of what was deemed inedible meat due to the fact that it had outlived its shelf life of around three months and was considered rotten.
The contemporary media often presents such events with no follow up on their future outcomes. Thus, denying the public the ability to understand how the news has an impact on our lives on a broader scale, and overlooking the solutions that arise. Criticisms directed at the merchants and the regulating authorities took place, as expected of a responsive and active media. However, just as shocking events come and go from our news cycle, few have brought up the more pressing and urgent problem left in the scandal’s wake: now that the meat has been detained, what should be done to dispose of it?
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Launch of the GEOM collection of coffee tables made from Recycled Plastic Bags
The Geom Collection is a set of small coffee tables with geometric shape tops made entirely from recycled plastic bags.
- Eco-Board is a process to recycle plastic bags and plastic scrap (cups, plates, cutlery, CD's, toothpaste tubes, tetrapak juice & milk packages) into plastic panel boards.
- Eco-Board was invented by Cedar Environmental, a Lebanese environmental and industrial engineering organization.
- Eco-Boards are meant to replace wood or steel boards in most construction applications. Used for fencing or prefabricated house modules.
- A typical Eco-Board weighs about 15 kilograms and diverts about 2500 shopping plastic bags from ending up in a landfill or scattered on roads and forests.
- Eco-Boards are manufactured without any chemical or industrial additives. They are entirely made from reclaimed plastic bags. They are resin free and chemicals free.
They have been processed at high temperatures to kill all potential pathogens. Eco-Boards are considered "sterilized" grade. - Each GEOM coffee table will have 300 grs. worth of Eco-Board or about 50 plastic bags.
- Each GEOM coffee table is UNIQUE since the pattern of Eco-Board is completely random; there are no identical GEOM Tables.
- Currently, Cedar Environmental is developing the process of making Eco-Boards to rely solely on alternative/renewable energy.
Update: Pictures of the event are shown in this slideshow:
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
My AD for Banque Libano Francaise "Live Your Ambition" Program
This AD was filmed in 2008 and has been regularly featured on LBC just before the evening news. Sometimes I go into small grocery shops in Beirut and the grocer looks at me and says: "Mich inta el chab yalli Biyechtighil bil Zbeleh?"
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