Recycle Beirut: When Greed Masquerades as Activism

This is somewhat of an open secret in environmental activist circles, but the fact it was recycling when we are all drowning in garbage made us all kind of turn a blind eye and hope for the best.

However, the antics of Recycle Beirut have become too much, and puts the greater struggle against the government’s horrible policies at risk, all for a private company’s struggle to make more profit off of Lebanon’s garbage woes.

For Profit

It’s not a crime to make money from projects that have a good stated purpose, but pretending you aren’t and treating it as a civil rights issue to rile up support based on unfounded claims preying on people’s frustration with the government, isn’t just unethical, it’s straight up manipulation.

String of Personal Attacks When Funding Falls Through

The only time Recycle Beirut slanders someone, is when they don’t give them the money they want for free. Who can forget the vicious campaign against the UN and EU, still visible on their pages, when funds for sustainable waste management and recycling went to several not-for-profits in it for the greater good, instead of Recycle Beirut.

It’s disgusting when someone asks for free money, to help their private business, and when they don’t get it, they attack not only the donors, but the local NGOs that were funded by them. For shame.

The Cornet Chehwan Lies

This morning was the last straw for me, when they posted this on their page before proceeding to block me after I called them out.

They blamed a municipality in upper Metn, for allegedly arresting their workers. They suggested that it’s because they criticized them on social media.

Here’s what happened here. The Cornet Chehwan municipality has been running its own recycling program since 2016. People sort in their homes, the municipality compresses and packages them, and sends them to recycling plant in a nearby town. Recycle Beirut wanted to profit from the fact residents in this town were sorting their garbage, and tried to replace the elected municipal authorities, in order to make profit, instead of letting the money go into the municipality and expanding the already functioning recycling program they had in place.

If Recycle Beirut’s mission isn’t making quick money, but recycling, why not go work in municipalities that aren’t recycling, instead of this absurd turf war they went into and went crazy when they weren’t allowed a cut of the cake as a private company instead of a local municipality.

They Lied About the Arrests

They claimed their workers were arrested because they criticized a municipality on social media. Turns out their employees papers weren’t up to date, and after that was sorted out, they were immediately released.

How low to use the arrest of undocumented workers, and their plight, and use it for your own purposes to try and smear someone that didn’t let you increase your profits. Next time make sure your workers are safe, instead of profit off their unjust arrest for your own greedy gains.

Don’t Use Noble Causes for Your Pockets Anymore

I hope Recyle Beirut become billionaires someday, but not on our backs. The lies and astro-turfing is disgusting. They are manipulating people with their lies, into thinking they’re supporting a just cause, when in reality, they’re just playing dirty games to make more money.

Plenty of Other Good, Ethical Recylcers in Lebanon

Recycle Beirut is just one group trying to make money, but plenty of others are doing much better work for no profit. Groups like Live Love Recyle, and many others. If you wanna recycle, go to them, and stop buying the lies of Recycle Beirut.

And for Recycle Beirut, the boy who cried wolf too many times, you can block whoever calls you out, but your time’s up, people know what kind of outfit you are, and the outbursts were cute at first, but now they’re just sad.

50 Million sqm of Illegal Quarries in Lebanon

The recent flash floods and mudslides that killed a Lebanese woman in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa, are merely the latest example in the disastrous situation of illegal quarries in Lebanon.

Recently, Antoine Atallah painstakingly compiled a comprehensive map of all the illegal quarries in Lebanon, which means outside the designated plots of Lebanese territory the government has deemed suitable for quarries. Here’s the map he compiled:

Atallah is also working on an interactive version of the above map.

The Problem

Apart from being incredibly ugly, and ruining some of Lebanon’s most pristine ecological sites, these sites are largely owned by Lebanon’s politicians and their lackies. This means that the government sits idly by and watches, making profits off of ruining Lebanon’s land and endangering both the environment and fragile ecosystems, as well as the risk to Lebanese citizens by hastening the desertification of what’s left of “Green Lebanon” and posing increasing risks to flash floods and mudslides.

Apart from that, the truck drivers and operators, are just like the Moteurs Mafia in Lebanon, the goons that strip citizens of every last penny so they supply us with electricity from their polluting diesel electrical generators because our government can’t, more than 30 years after the war ended. They block the streets with their trucks, making Lebanon’s already choked highways even more congested, forcing the hand of the government to allow them to resume their destructive, illegal rackets of dismantling Lebanon’s mountains and valleys for a quick buck, to build houses we can’t even afford.

The Solution

Stopping these quarries immediately, and figuring out how to undo and mitigate all the damage they have caused. Quarries need to be far away from populated centers, and never be in locations that threaten Lebanon’s already suffering biodiversity.

Then again, our government couldn’t even stop the Eden Bay resort, I wonder how they will be able to stop that, given they profit the most from it.

I’ll be working on a more in-depth article about this. This was just to let you know the alarming rate at which these quarries are proliferating with a complete lack of action from Lebanon’s government on perma-vacation.

Koura Biofuel Plant: Turning Tree Clippings into Sustainable Energy

Taking care of olive trees and forests includes pruning the trees to make sure healthy growth, and minimize risk of forest fires. Al Koura district in North Lebanon, is especially interested in that practice, given that 64% of the district is covered with olive trees and forests.

Usually, the trimmings are burned. That’s between 1000 and 2000 tonnes a year of burned wood and pruning residue. This is why when I heard about the new Bioenergy production project in Koura with the University of Balamand and Koura Municipalities Union, funded by the European Union in Lebanon, I was very happy and excited!

The plant will take in around 1000 tonnes of pruning residue from the district each year, and transform it into around 700 tonnes of “briquettes” that can replace fossil fuels as a means to heat households and businesses across the country.

The project creates jobs, curbs the burning of pruning residue and provides a cheaper, more sustainable alternative to heat homes and cook in traditional stoves still used across the district. In other words, it reduces pollution, creates a new industry from locally sourced materials and the grander scheme of things, it also helps Lebanon get closer to its COP15 target of 12% renewable energy by 2020.

I hope more and more sustainable projects like this spring up across the country!

Menna w Fina: How You Can Help in Tripoli

A Recap of what we do in Tripoli

For those of you who don’t know, this blog is what I do in my spare time, it’s not a job. I work at an NGO that I love called MARCH Lebanon, which was founded in 2012 with the stated purpose of fighting censorship and defending individual freedoms and rights.

Since 2015, we’ve been working in former conflict zones, helping de-escalate tensions and rebuilding the communities ravaged by war and neglect by teaming up with young men and women that were once part of the fighting, or were directly affected by it. Our longest-running and biggest project is our Tripoli one, where we went into Beb El Tebbeneh and Jabal Mohsen shortly after the Lebanese Army went in and stopped the clashes there that had been on an off since the Lebanese Civil War, and only made worse since the start of the conflict in Syria.

Since then, we’ve established the Kahwetna Cultural Hub and Community Center, as well as a massive rebuilding project Beb El Dahab which employs young men and women who were part of the violence, to help rebuild what was destroyed and lift up their communities as they learn new livelihood skills in the process (including computer skills, graphic design and language courses).

This article isn’t about that though, it’s about a grass-roots initiative young men and women that were involved in our projects in Tripoli, started themselves, and of which we are extremely proud.

Menna w Fina

Menna w Fina is a volunteer organization that young men an women that are part of MARCH’s work in Tripoli launched earlier this year. Last week, when I was there on-site, a young man I have come to know well over the past few years, which goes by “Harrouk”, told me about Menna w Fina.

First thing he showed me was the logo, which they designed themselves thanks to workshops of graphic design given by our very own rock-star designer Joan Nassif.

The second thing he showed me, was a video they had shot, edited and produced themselves, skills they had learned under the tutelage of our very own comedian and kick-ass videographer and director Wissam Kamal.

They are focusing on cleaning up, sorting and tidying up the alleyways and streets that crisscross the heavily populated areas of Beb El Tebbeneh and Jabal Mohsen, especially the sites that are located on what used to be the front line when the battles were happening.

They have an event this Friday, and if you’d like to volunteer and pitch in, you an RSVP here

https://www.facebook.com/events/2062521933966944/

I was personally extremely delighted to see all the skills and experience gained in MARCH projects is already being put to good use by the young men and women who were part of them. In a country where we cannot count on the authorities to do their job, it’s grass-roots, volunteer-led initiatives such as Menna w Fina that will help improve our circumstances and the communities we are part of. I also salute the young men and women for taking time out of their days and putting in the hours and pounding the pavement to make this a reality. Below are some before and after shots of their first event last week:

What’s Happening with the Oil & Gas Sector in Lebanon

Who’s LOGI?

LOGI (Lebanon Oil and Gas Initiative) is an awesome Lebanese NGO that’s working hard on unraveling the black box that is Lebanon’s oil and gas industry.

The Oil and Gas Sector in Lebanon

In the past few years, this sector has been plagued with a lack of transparency that has most citizens which are not affiliated to a political party, skeptical about the lofty prospects and promises given about this sector. Unfortunately, most taxpayers feel it’s just another blackhole of corruption in the making, and doubt that the benefits (if any) of this sector, will end up helping the country’s economy, but just lining the pockets of Lebanon’s politicians like most other corruption-infested sectors in Lebanon.

The Video

LOGI released a hilarious and well-executed video today, that highlights the suspicious speed of passing laws associated with this sector, without anyone being sure about what’s next and how it will be implemented, given we are at least a decade away (7 years is the most optimistic prediction) from actually extracting oil and gas, if ever, with the recent Israeli incursion into a block that is supposed to be Lebanon’s.

The Cumbersome, Mysterious Laws Passed at Lightning Speed

The draft laws in question are: the draft law for establishing the National Oil Company, the draft law for establishing the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the draft law for establishing the Directorate for Petroleum Assets and the draft law for Onshore oil and gas exploration.

Personally, I’m not sure why we need to pay taxpayer money to create these entities and employ people to work at them, when we don’t even have an oil sector yet. This sounds and smells fishy, and needs to be clarified to taxpayers, given the current government has done everything it can to hike taxes, but has done absolutely nothing to stop corruption and wasteful spending.

What’s most worrying for me, is the sudden urge to look of oil and gas on land, which wasn’t the case before. If dams and other developmental projects are any reference, this means further destruction of natural areas, cultural landmarks and irreplaceable archeological gems, in a country already drowning in untreated garbage.

We need to create enough public awareness on this issue so that the decision makers delay the passing of the four draft laws I mentioned above, and review them taking into consideration LOGI’s recommendations. We might have a chance at building a robust, transparent sector from scratch, let’s not let them fuck it up.

My Two Cents

Personally, I just wish we can strike a good deal with oil producers so they send us crude oil we can process here, take our share, and resell the by-products to other countries. It’d be cheaper and easier to do that than off-shore drilling, especially given the steadily low price of oil, and the rest of the world shifting away from fossil fuels into renewable energy sources that are becoming more and more reliable and cost-effective, creating more jobs and helping keep what’s left from our environment intact.

You can find answers to more of your questions on LOGI’s website.

The campaign by LOGI partner organization Kulluna Irada, a newly-formed civic movement for political reform.

Kissproof is Ditching Plastic Bottles and Offering Water for Free

When we’re all drowning in garbage, with our sea full of plastic and our beaches under tons of untreated solid waste, and an inept government that has failed to find a proper solution to the crisis, it’s time we step up as individuals and businesses to help reduce our waste drastically.

One major issue is single-use plastic. It’s water bottles, food containers, plastic bags, cutlery and all the plastic stuff you use once (or not at all) then throw away. The sad part is, most of that plastic can be recycled, but unfortunately just ends up being burned, thrown in landfills or simply dumped into the sea. What’s even more sad, is that most of the single-use plastic we use, is completely unnecessary.

I’m very happy to see businesses in Lebanon step up and try to reduce their consumption of single-use plastics. My favorite spot in Badaro, Kissproof, decided to stop serving plastic water bottles completely, and instead, will use water dispensers and glass cups to serve its patrons water.

All the unnecessary waste generated from half-drunken water bottles, will stop now. You’ll also stop paying for water, which I still find a huge issue in Lebanon, where people still pay for still water almost everywhere. That’s of course because our tap water is overwhelmingly not potable, which means establishments still have to pay to get water that is fit to drink. So, it’s awesome establishments willing to offer water for free, are willing to accept this extra cost at no extra cost to their customers.

I’m glad Kissproof took this initiative, and I hope more and more pubs and restaurants will follow this example soon. We cannot count on our government, but we can do something ourselves in the meantime to help stop the toxic garbage crisis that has already shortened all of our lives a few years…

Nahr El Kalb Has Been Cleaned 16 Times, The Real Problem is the Dumps

I posted a photo taken on the Zouk coast yesterday, that showed a post-apocalyptic landscape of a pristine beach, covered with tons of garbage.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeQAvE2BO_-/?taken-by=ginoraidy

16 Cleanups for 1 Beach

Several of the comments seemed to point the blame at the people, who they feel haven’t been mobilizing or doing their share, but just sitting and complaining about and to the government.

There are a few inaccurate things about that allegation: like the fact that this same strip of beach has been cleaned up by volunteers for sixteen times in 2016 and 2017. It’s not a “yearly” thing, and it’s done by an all-volunteer group of amazing young men and women who give their time and energy to pick up, sort and recycle and compost the tons of waste that washes up on the beach.

Groups like Recycle Lebanon, Live Love Lebanon and many others have been working tirelessly and doing the job of the government, and what every citizen should be doing themselves.

Here are pictures of the cleanup of that same beach in March of 2017

The Cleanups are Important, but not the Solution

So, for everyone whining that taxpayers aren’t doing their part, please get a bit more informed. Hundreds and thousands of young Lebanese men and women have dedicated days of break-back work to clean the garbage that washes up on the sea, or is left there by less considerate people who still litter despite us drowning in garbage (or because?)

I think it’s great the government took quick action to order the clean up of the coast from Zalka to Zouk, however, if the garbage we collect, gets sent to the same landfills they originally came from, I don’t really get what the point is.

Many people were sorting the past two years, thinking their municipalities would recycle them. Most of those sorted bags ended up in those haphazard landfills though. This is a disgrace.

This is the Norm Now

This is not a first-time thing, sadly, it’s the first time many people have noticed this is what’s happening though. Volunteers who clean up, would see the cleaned beach covered with garbage again in a matter of days, if not hours.

Having the garbage moved from our streets, might have made many think that the crisis is over. It’s not, it’s only become much worse. Some trash gets burned and you inhale the toxic fumes. Other trash gets thrown next to our airport’s runways. The rest gets dumped straight into the sea.

These landfills need to stop. The talk about unnecessary incinerators is absurd, and stinks (literally and figuratively). When 77% of our solid waste can be composted and recycled, and in several places, that’s what’s happening and everyone is doing a great job at it, there is no excuse to expand landfills and buy incinerators.

Close the landfills, now. Beause picking up garbage from our beaches, then putting them on dumps on the same coast, is like building a sand castle: every wave will take it back to sea and onto our beaches.

Recycle Lebanon released this statement this morning:

It’s not just the Zalka-Zouk coast though, this was posted earlier today in Beirut, as a direct result from the adjacent Costa Bravo landfill.

If you want to help, get in touch with the many awesome NGOs like Recycle Lebanon and see how you can help. You can also sign up to join a beach clean up with Live Love Lebanon by going here. Don’t say no one’s doing anything but complain, there’s a lot of people doing amazing things. One thing you can do without the extra effort, is stop using so much single-use plastics every day (bottles, cups, plates, bags, etc.).

This is the Lebanese Government’s Solution to the Garbage Crisis

These pictures were taken moments ago by my good friend and LBCI reporter Lea Fayad in front of the Holiday Beach resort, right next to where Nahr El Kalb pours into the sea.

Last week, the current government decided to expand the current haphazard landfills in Costa Bravo (right next to the airport runways) and the area stretching from Karantina to Citymall, covering the two sides of Beirut’s coast with mountains of garbage that has been spilling into the sea for years, and in fact decades.

The place where some of you post Instagram photos in your swimsuits every summer, looks like a veritable landfill of mainly plastic, the stuff that floats when the waves hit those disastrous landfills this genius government not only erected, but is seeking to expand…

I guess they are doing this on purpose, to twist our arm and force us to accept the absurd incinerators plan, given it will rake in good money for those in power.

Part of the fault is on us, for using so much single-use plastic. The big part of the blame though, is on the consecutive governments, whose solution was either to burn the garbage, or simply dump it into the Mediterranean Sea.

This is why we need to elect the current MPs out of office in May, and get people who put our health and the environment before their quarterly profits from crooked, corrupt deals to make even more money than they used to from our solid waste.

Shame on the Lebanese government. Our air, our water, our soil, our food, everything is turning toxic, when the solutions are much simpler, when we can compost and recycle 77% of our solid waste, why the fuck are we throwing it in the sea?! It’s kinda sad that the infamous, cancer-causing Zouk powerplant is in the background of this frame… Makes the image look like post-apocalyptic hell-hole. But hey, the movie Beirut is painting a wrong picture, and that’s what we should be concerned about, right?

Remember the Garbage? Human Rights Watch Releases “Where Did The Trash Go?” Campaign

Even though the current regime removed the garbage from the streets, more than 900 garbage dumps, where open burning of untreated waste happens on a regular basis. Even though up to 80% of our solid waste can be recycled or composted, more than 77% is thrown in these haphazard dumps, or burned into the air we all breathe.

Check out the rest of the HRW report here, and you can sign the petition here.

Even though HRW did not prefer a particular national plan, the one set by the current government of using incinerators, is the absolute health and environment-wise, but the one that will make the ruling class the most money. We need to work on our municipalities to make sure they adopt better, eco-friendly waste management plans that do not put our lives and health at risk.

Mashrou’ Leila in Ehden

It’s probably not a secret that I am a huge fan of Mashrou’ Leila. I admire what they’re doing with art and music, to push for change and reform on many issues that plague the modern Arab World, whether it’s corruption, pollution, political oppression, misogyny, homophobia or any of the many other obstacles that lie on the path to a Lebanon and an Arab World we can all feel welcome in and wholeheartedly part of.

Ehden

That’s why seeing them perform in my beloved hometown of Ehden, had special significance. I will not lie, I don’t go up as often as I’d like to, nor am I involved in local affairs as much as I’d want to. But, I wasn’t going to miss a massive Mashrou’ Leila gig just a 3-minute walk from my grandparents’ house.

I loved how full the streets of Ehden were, and how many new faces from all across Lebanon had decided to come up and spend the night or weekend all 127 kilometers away from Beirut, at an altitude of more than 1500 meters above sea level. I hope you guys enjoyed it!

The Show

The real pleasure for me though, other than listening to “Lil Watan” and “Roman” live, was Hamed’s signature, improvised comments between each and every song. It felt like he was at ease and excited, more so than I have personally seen him on stage before. His rebuke to the government was brutal, and the crowd beautifully agreed, echoed by the Mar Sarkis Mountain where the Ehdeniyat stage sits. After every criticism though, Hamed throws some hope into the mix, before starting with the song that articulates whatever issue he had raised in his comments: the gaping gender gap, the garbage crisis, the closure of a gay-friendly club, the inhumane treatment of trans refugees, the band’s two bans from performing in Jordan (Hamed is half-Jordanian, making it even harder to accept) and a lot of other social and political commentary we rarely see spoken up against in public, in person and on stage.

The Flag

Perhaps the most significant moment of the performance, was when a fan raised up a rainbow flag right in front of Hamed, and Hamed held it for a few seconds while performing. My eyes did a double-take, and I was like, “a rainbow flag, in my somewhat conservative hometown, with an adoring crowd cheering?!”

I love people from my town, and honestly believe they are some of the sweetest, most hospitable humans once you get past the Zghartawi stereotype of gun-toting strongmen. One thing I noticed growing up, is in many of the families here, there’s a matriarch, not a patriarch. The Virgin Mary always has precedence, or a stronger sense of closeness, than Jesus or a male saint. Zghartawis swear by the “lady of Zgharta” (Saydet Zgharta), never by “God”. However, it is far from a liberal town. At least that’s what I always thought.

Last year’s impressive municipal elections results for a list of secular independents, was my first wake-up call that something’s changing, that it wasn’t the town I remembered spending time in during my early teen years. Last Saturday, seeing that rainbow flag flutter in front of thousands of people in the heart of my town, was another reminder that things have changed, or at least I notice them better now. I scanned the crowd, to see if anyone was bothered or “offended” by what that flag symbolizes, and I was half expecting part of the crowd to leave, but no one did. They stayed, and the cheers actually got louder.

Does it mean that everyone here’s suddenly pro-LGBT rights? Probably not. However, the fact one could show their pride, without any fear, backlash or tension, is more than what could be said about many other places in Lebanon, and sadly, most places in our part of the world.

In short, I was proud of Ehden’s crowd, and ashamed I had assumed the worst as a first reaction, only to be proven wrong by what actually happened. Inclusivity, tolerance and acceptance of others regardless of class, race, gender or sexuality is just as appealing as the music at a Mashrou’ Leila concert, and Ehden’s was awesome.

Can’t wait to see which new, independent candidates will run in next year’s election, and campaigning for them for a Zgharta that’s less the macho stereotype, and more the Ehden I’ve been experiencing the past two summers!

#BalaPlastic

Perhaps the cherry on top, was an eco-friendly overall message, with the stage displaying art installations made from the plastic we all went down to clean up near Beirut’s Raouche a week before the concert. Recycle Lebanon, Greenpeace, Mercy Corps, Al Midan NGO and Di-Lab were to thank, with all that plastic going on to be recycled after the concert, instead of end up in the sea or landfills like the 700 tons of single-use plastic we use every day…

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Environment