Like our popular guide on reusing air conditioner water, old tea bags ? … that’s easy. As an avid tea drinker, I was intrigued when I stumbled upon a variety of sources that promoted the eco-friendly use of tea bags, outside the teacup. Arthur W. Pinero, an Englishman, of course, said, “Where there’s tea, there’s […]
Recyclable plastics or wastes for the dump? The choice is ours. Plastic items that usually get discarded and wind up being buried in landfills or washed out to sea are serious issues brought up during annual events like Earth Day. The seriousness of large amounts of plastic debris in the worlds seas and oceans have raised […]
Lebanese don’t usually need an excuse to party but they might need an incentive to recycle. Albeit one of the only countries at the COP18 climate change negotiations to commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, Lebanon has a shoddy recycling record – mostly because it lacks the necessary infrastructure. Which is why the NGO […]
Tires, plastics, and other types of solid waste will soon be converted into energy and other products at a new Israel mega recycling plant. Photo: Haaretz/Michal Fattal Israel’s garbage dumps and landfills are often referred to as large, unsightly “garbage mountains” such as the Hiriya garbage mound near Tel Aviv. With the Hiriya site now […]
Stock image of trash dump, Shutterstock. Gaza produces roughly 1,000 pounds of waste every day and until now most of it has gone untreated. But a new recycling plant situated very close to the border with Egypt has recently opened to manage some of this waste, which is otherwise scattered throughout farmlands or in the […]
You can get vending machines for the strangest things in the Arab Gulf – even for gold bars. But thinking in a greener direction, the United Arab Emirates is the second country in the world to adopt light bulb and used battery recycling machines to the public. Five reverse vending machines are being set up […]
Could it be a world-changer? A cheap solution to help African kids get to schools and clinics? Israel’s Izhar Gafni (who we interviewed here) had an outlandish idea to create a durable cardboard bike from scratch with raw materials sum totalling about $9. Add in some labor costs and you can get a pretty cheap […]
PLUG-In Hebron is a dynamic new urban renewal project for the conflict-shorn West Bank city. Following years of what the designers call “reciprocal violence,” the Israeli military split Hebron into two separate zones. The latter, H2, which is under Israeli jurisdiction, contains the old city. Which means that the Palestinians have been isolated from an […]
If you are in Cairo, don’t miss these fun and fabulous recycling and upcycling workshops at Darb 1718 Following what looks like a very successful Recycling Art festival at the end of August, Darb 1718 are hosting a set of four recycling workshops this month. With sessions on the 9, 10, 16 and 17 of […]
In the beginning of September, Darb 1718, an art and culture organization in Cairo, hosted a festival to promote recycling in Egypt. It featured a musical performance by El Zabaleen (the Garbage Collectors), a local band famous for reusing old materials as instruments to play their music. The Darb 1718 festival engaged many of the […]
Dr. Mamdouh Khalil, a professor of environmental sciences at Cairo University, told Al-Shorfa there is currently a waste disposal crisis in Egypt, because of the lack of waste recycling plants.
A growing body of research shows a split down gender lines when we make environmental choices. Men may be from Mars, but women are the greener creatures, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Women in industrialized countries buy most of the eco-friendly household products. Women also load up on organic foods. […]
We probably shouldn’t poke fun at the Dubai Municipality for bribing local residents with cash awards and iPads as part of their recently-launched My City, My Environment recycling program. Because their intentions are essentially good. But it’s so hard to resist when so much that happens in the Vegas of the Middle East (need I […]
In August, Jordan’s Ministry of the Environment started a waste sorting and recycling project at public agencies. According to statements by the ministry, in the first phase of the project, they will implement waste sorting and recycling across a number of ministries, institutions and schools. Environment Minister Yaseen Khayyat said the project is being carried […]
Local press and environmentalists in Egypt claim that the unofficial garbage workers of Cairo – the Zabaleen – are being sidestepped by President Mohamed Morsi’s Clean Homeland campaign, which resolves to solve the country’s overwhelming garbage issue within 100 days. This was a dangerous promise to make given that so many of the systems required […]