Meged oil field, in Israel.
Last week two environmental representatives were added to Israel’s Petroleum Council, according to the Jerusalem Post. The council has been restructured to include a total of 13 members, including seven members of the public. As Israel’s ongoing court dispute between government officials and national gas distributors proves, the industry has a local history of disregarding public interest for financial gain – look to our past story on polluting gas stations.
Forest in central Israel, as seen from Ein Karem
Some architects and economists are proposing Israel solve its affordable housing crisis by turning central Israel into a “megacity,” similar to Hong Kong, and moving the nation’s lush nature reserves and agricultural lands to the Negev and the Galilee. Supporters of this solution insist it would not harm the environment if public transportation was improved and public parks increased.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the country produces around 93% of their domestic food requirements. As of 2002 central Israel held 39% of the country’s agricultural land. As we’ve seen in numerous nearby Arab nations, food security continues to be a divisive issue among Middle Eastern populations. It’s hard to imagine that paving so much of Israel’s fertile land would be beneficial in the long run.
Black plumes go airborne from burning Byblos Carpet Factory fire in Lebanon.
Lebanon has had more than its share of various air and surface pollution issues in recent years. Some of these issues have included dumping loads of garbage straight into the Mediterranean; as well as a giant garbage mound in Sidon that is so serious that boats at sea smell it before seeing it. Recent fires at tire dumping landfill sites have also been reported, including a recent tire dump fire outside Beirut that was suspected as being intentionally set by people wanting to retrieve the steel reinforcing material from inside the tires themselves in order to resell it. Another prime contributor to air pollution near the country’s capital, occurred on Friday when a carpet factory fire broke out at a large carpet factory in the town of Safra, just north of Beirut.
Conservationists in Jordan have criticized a news website for reporting positively on a video which shows two men posing with a dead owl they claim to have killed
Images have emerged of more animal rights abuse in the Middle East – this time in Jordan. A video was posted on a Jordanian news site showing two men boasting about the killing of an owl. Conservationists in the country were rightly quite upset about this, particularly as there have been concerns about the falling numbers of owls.
Sadly this is in a long list of animals rights abuses that Green Prophet has reported on from across the region. In the last couple of months alone we have reported on a Kuwaiti posing with dead wolves, the massacre of 12 flamingoes as well as thousands of endangered fruit bats which were gunned down in Lebanon. Whats more, despite laws to ban the ownership of exotic animals in the Gulf, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more pet cheetahs being paraded around.
Visit Autopooling.com to car pool in Lebanon.
It is often true that through hardship people naturally become more resourceful. Carpooling first became prominent in the United States as a rationing tactic during World War II. It returned in the mid 1970s due to the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis and it has gradually declined in the US starting from the early 1980’s to 2004. Recently however, carpooling, the act of sharing rides with more than one passenger in the car , has been on the rise again: probably due to rising oil prices and the economic downturn. Riders have started carpooling services in Egypt. In Lebanon hiking petrol prices, worn-out public transport services coupled with Lebanon’s legendary bad traffic and increasing environmental awareness have pushed a group of Lebanese students at the environmental club in the American University of Beirut (AUB) to practice carpooling concepts by creating the country’s first carpooling website Autopooling.com.
Two Israeli women founded TIPA – the first company in Israel to offer 100% biodegradable and recyclable beverage packaging, as an alternative to plastics. This is a particularly difficult feat to achieve.
Daphna Nissenbaum and Tal Neuman founded the company in 2010 in order to address the dire need for packaging that is genuinely ecologically-sensitive. And so far, they have they come up with three fresh designs, namely the Tip, Tipack and Tipup that appear to fit the bill. The packaging works to replace juice boxes and plastics that hold liquids. Other similar plastic alternative companies have come on board since, from Israel, and include Melodea and W-Cycle.
They claim that their films biodegrade within 180 days if subjected to standard industrial composting environments. What this means, and we have discussed this in various previous posts, in order for compostable plastics to biodegrade, it is crucial that they receive adequate amounts of oxygen.
On their website, the founders emphasize that for TIPA, sustainability is not just another 14 letter word but the very essence of their existence. Along with their talented posse of researchers and other employees, they strive to make packaging as environmentally benign as an orange peel.
That way, all residents of the Middle East and elsewhere who don’t quite get how destructive our material and waste stream has become to the planet can discard their waste without wondering how many years it will languish in a landfill, generating gas and leaching chemicals into the environment.
Of course, these products are only as good as the locations in which they are sold.
Let’s take Yemen for example. Unless the Environmental Ministry is adequately briefed and establishes a chain of appropriate industrial composting heaps where biodegradable products can slowly disintegrate in optimum conditions, these products will be useless to them. Same goes for other countries.
Luckily there are many countries around the world that are already equipped with the appropriate facilities to manage cutting edge packaging and they should get first dibs. Now the onus lies upon them to prioritize the decrease the amount of waste that escapes into our oceans to land in the bellies of unfortunate marine creatures.
For loads more information, please visit Tipa’s refreshingly accessible and transparent website. Oh, and by the way, did we mention that we wish women could rule the world (well, I do anyway)? Because only a woman would come up with a product this gentle and altruistic.
In 2022, TIPA offered 312MET home- and industrially-compostable barrier film to package nuts and crisps, designed to provide a high barrier that does not require an additional sealing layer for full effectiveness.
The company claims that its film, will combat the 290,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste generated in the UK every year, as approximated by WRAP. Only six percent of that figure is said to be recycled, the rest being sent to landfill.
With Britain supposedly consuming six billion packets of crisps and other salty snacks per year, it is thought that putting compostable packaging into circulation will lower waste levels without jeopardising demand for the products.
TIPA also suggests that its new design can withstand the corrosive properties of salt and oil from the crisps and nuts it is set to package – a factor said to have been missing from similar designs in the past. Combined with the high barrier, this property is thought to result in thinner packaging, cutting down on waste.
“TIPA endeavours to always remain on the forefront of developing innovative, planet-friendly technology,” said Eli Lancry, chief technology officer at TIPA. “We are proud to launch a film that performs just like traditional plastic with an extremely high barrier, offering customers convenience and reassurance that the quality of their product will be protected.
“This is only one of many novelty products we have and will produce in our R&D center.”
In a similar project, TIPA recently partnered with Aquapak, utilising its water-soluble polymer technology to work towards high-barrier and PVDC-free compostable films.
::TIPA
Saudi Arabia has finally noticed it has twenty centuries of solar reserves and has made plans to tap them. For its own use.The Kingdom has just announced a $109 billion plan to create a solar industry that generates a third of the nation’s electricity by 2032, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Maher al- Odan, a consultant at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) announced a plan to have 41 GW of solar capacity within two decades.
To put 41 GW in perspective, China is the world’s leader in wind power now, overtaking Germany and the U.S. with about 48 GW of wind. This is a very serious move by a country well able to afford this kind of investment, that till recently has lagged the rest of the MENA region in renewables trailing Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates.
Renowned French designer Sandrine Dole wanted to find a way to recycle piles of rubber lying around Marrakech while simultaneously elevating the local community and its numerous cottage industries. Some of the main design challenges included separating the piles of dirty rubber from other waste and then turning them into something not only beautiful but also replicable, useful and of superior quality.
The results of this endeavor financially supported by Smiley World Organization and distributed by the French Fair Trade Company Altermundi couldn’t be more surprising. Now based in Morocco, Dole incorporated local and natural materials into the design process to soften the rubber, adding color and a grace that belies the origin of these once wasted materials.
Weaving, woodworking and basketry are all popular local crafts that Dole sought to incorporate into the recycling project with dual benefit. Not only do these crafts (and the materials they use – wool, wood and straw) lend a far more gentle aspect to pure rubber products, but they also allow the local community to do work with which they are familiar.
Although there is something of a rubber recycling inclination in Marrakech, it remains informal and underdeveloped, although the environmental non-government organization Groupe Pizzorno does contribute to a municipally-sanctioned collection program that greatly reduces pollution in one of the country’s most enigmatic cities.
Add some color and Dole’s existing product lines are both quite extraordinary, not least because of the manner in which the materials were sourced. Red, white and black interiors and household furniture are being distributed via Altermundi and more repurposed goodness is definitely in the pipeline.
Raising the profile of Morocco’s talented artisans and putting money in their pocket, this fantastic project also has unsung environmental benefits as hundreds of pounds of rubber has been diverted from the city’s already overburdened landfills.
More Design From Morocco:
Guilhem Eustache’s Magical Home in Morocco is Made From Local Materials
Tomatoes are staple to the Israeli diet; Israel looks to Jordan to augment its tomato supply.
Last year a spike in cottage cheese prices helped spark the tent protests in Tel Aviv and inspired the worldwide Occupy movement. Cottage is a staple of the Israeli diet, so much so that it became a national symbol utilized in discourse about inequality and corporate exploitation. There is probably only one other food item that unites Israelis so vigorously: Tomatoes.
Almost one year after the protests in Tel Aviv, Israeli farmers are reporting a poor crop will raise tomatoes prices across the nation. Market prices doubled during the last weeks of April – up to NIS 18 a kg (about $4). Some industry professionals speculate that the price of tomatoes is likely to increase 400 percent in the coming months.
Palmaculture is a new name for an old concept – one which helped green the Middle East with traditional palm gardens called bustans
For centuries now date palm groves have been present in the hot deserts of MENA stretching from Morocco in the west to Yemen in the south. Indeed these man-made ecosystems have been vital centres of agricultural productivity in otherwise hostile and arid environments.
It is believed that the first date palms were cultivated in southern Mesopotamia in the 5th millennium BC and oasis agriculture developed on a wider scale during the Bronze Age. Now, Islamic researcher Mark Bryant wants to re-introduce date palm gardens to the region – this time not just for agricultural purposes but in a bid to increase green and sustainable spaces.
“These gardens could provide a cool peaceful shaded space where visitors can enjoy the natural environment whose development is low impact and sustainable – a place to grow food, shade, peace of mind and perhaps even get a little closer to God,” explains Mark Bryant. His work around the concept of Palmaculture highlights the advantages of embracing palm gardens.
Date palms, which have fruit rich in sugar and vitamins, also provide material for construction, fuel, basket making, ropes and packaging. The shade that palms provide reduces evaporation and creates a cooler, damper ‘microclimate’ where more delicate crops can grow.
Bryant adds that the palm groves can serve as test sites for sustainable agriculture whilst promoting bio-diversity and conservation of the natural world. Palm gardens could also be utilised as sites for the recycling of “greywater” as part of a water management scheme. Therefore these palm gardens are not just for growing food but they become places of recreation, education and scientific research.
Bryant tells me that the Palmaculture concept was inspired by the work of Geoff Lawton, a Permaculturist (who works with his wife Nadia Lawton who I interviewed here), who has noted the important role played by palm groves. “I was able to talk to Nadia and Geoff briefly in Jordan, their reaction was positive and they felt the concept has potential,” says Bryant. “I feel my next step is to develop the proposal into something more presentable and then Inshallah get it translated into Arabic and produce a bi-lingual illustrated booklet.”
Watch this space, I guess.
: Background information via Tengberg, M., Beginnings and early history of date palm garden cultivation in the Middle East, Journal of Arid Environments (2012).
For more on sustainable agriculture in MENA see:
Islamic Gardens – They Could Build A Green Movement
Israel and China seem to be agreeing on more and more these days. On Tuesday, investors from the two countries announced they would be jointly funding a new solar thermal venture in Israel’s Negev Desert, the HelioBooster, Jerusalem Post reported. Still in its demonstration phase, the technology was created by Israeli solar company, HelioFocus, which–since its founding in 2007–has been succesfully pursuing both the Chinese and Israeli markets.
Does goes on a mission to find out what typifies an Egyptian environmentalist.
A few months ago Egypt was named the greenest country in the Middle-East by a Yale group, even topping neighbouring Israel. It even turned out to be one of the best improving countries in the world. If you ever visited it, this might sound odd, and I in fact haven’t met an Egyptian that took the news seriously. But yet, the ranking seems credible. Maybe Egypt’s people care more about the environment than we think?
Me, I am particularly interested in non-Western ways of looking at the environment. In the West much people reached a level of prosperity, and now they start to care about the environment. But not everybody who cares about the environment fits in this stereotype. And maybe luckily.
A few months ago I decided that I wanted to search out how a specific Egyptian or Arab environmentalist might look like. I read too much books, but also interviewed some interesting people, and I thought it might be interesting to share my discoveries with you. I say share, because I want you to interact with me, by letting me know if you (dis)agree.
Energy drinks have come under renewed scrutiny in Dubai, but the Dubai Central Laboratory (DCL) responsible for ensuring their quality and safety has said that they do comply with UAE specifications according to a recent report in Khaleej Times. Last year the UAE banned the sale of drinks like Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar to anyone under age 16, pregnant women and diabetics but the beverages are still available to everyone else despite health risks. So we have compiled five really good reasons to avoid energy drinks, based on a report issued in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings and the New York Times.
Nobody offers up adrenalin and nature bliss quite like Adventures in Lebanon. Their first whitewater rafting trip of the season on Nahr El Assi – an animated river roaring with springtime snowmelt – commences at 8.30am on Sunday at Futuroscope in Beirut and ends twelve hours later in the same spot. A scenic three hour drive (that includes a breakfast pitstop in Ksara) winds 150km away from the concrete jungle and toxic fire tires to the verdant Hermel Bekaa, where the real fun begins.
Stuck in the bygone days of rampant Lebanese nepotism, Mr. Bilal Hamad, the Mayor of Beirut municipality, is delaying a plan to open one of the capital’s last remaining green spaces to less privileged members of society. Nanhoo Executive Director Mohammad Ayoub says that Mr. Hamad worries about dirty people trashing Horsh Beirut (also known as the Pine Forest) and setting it on fire, but the youth organization’s leader says these fears are baseless.
More serious for the sake of public health and peace is the issue of the capital’s chronic lack of green space, which concerned citizens and activists addressed tonight at the Nahnoo office on Salim AlKhoury Street in Beirut. Their strategy? To invade the city with guerrilla picnics.
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