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Sell your cooking oil for biodiesel money

Julia Harte
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3
Sell your cooking oil for biodiesel money

“Bring waste oil, take away money” reads this advertisement for BAYTOM, a machine that incentivizes Turks to recycle cooking oil into biodiesel.

In Turkish cities with BAYTOMs (Waste Vegetable Oil Collection Machines), residents can bring their used cooking oil outside and pour it into a machine that will measure its fat content and dispense a small gift: money, bus tokens, or coupons, for example. Licensed waste management companies come regularly to collect the oil and transport it to a plant where it can be recycled into biodiesel fuel.

A country-wide campaign to boost recycling

baytom biodiesel turkey
Turkish Marine Protection Association General Director M.A. Özkural demonstrates how to use a BAYTOM.

BAYTOMs, which were designed by a high school chemistry teacher in the Turkish province of Çorum, are hitting the streets of Turkey as municipalities install them in an effort to improve waste oil disposal in the country.

A joint project between Turkey’s Environment and Urbanism Ministry, the Turkish Marine Protection Association, and the country’s Vegetable Oil Manufacturers’ Association, BAYTOMs are being distributed all over the country after a pilot project in Çorum.

Some cities in France and England will also use the machines, reports Turkish daily Today’s Zaman.

BAYTOMs can distinguish between waste oil and other substances, and separate them into different compartments. The machines only dispense gifts equal in worth to the amount of recyclable oil poured into them, encouraging users to carefully conserve their waste oil and recycle it frequently.

Daryl Hannah made cooking oil fuel her El Camino in the 2000s.
Daryl Hannah made cooking oil fuel her El Camino in the 2000s.

Producing fuel, protecting Turkey’s marine ecosystems

Of the 350,000 tons of waste vegetable oil that Turkey produces each year, just 10 percent is collected for recycling. When it comes to biodiesel production capacity, however, Turkey has the second highest in the world, after Germany.

Most of it currently uses agricultural feedstock, but biodiesel production from waste oil is more environmentally friendly, according to Turkish Marine Protection Association General Director M.A. Özkural. When using waste oil, moreover, 65 to 80 percent of the liquid can be turned into biodiesel, which results in 50 percent less CO2 emissions than regular petroleum.

In the meantime, keeping waste oil from being dumped down the drain has a range of other benefits. Oils congeal on the insides of sewer pipes, causing blockages and reducing pipe flow capacity, which leads to extra municipal infrastructure expenses.

When it reaches open water, oil spreads thinly over the surface and prevents oxygenation, suffocating many types of marine life. The situation allows some creatures, like jellyfish, to flourish and undergo population booms that make it even more difficult for marine ecosystems to stay diverse. Just one liter of waste oil is enough to pollute 1 million liters of water.  Domestic waste is responsible for 25 percent of water pollution in Turkey.

:: Today’s Zaman

Read more about recycling efforts in Turkey:
The Garbage Women Of Turkey Turn Trash Into Trendsetting Handbags
Turkish Government Gets Ready to Deal With Electronic Waste
Turkish Man Fights For His Rights- As A Garbage Collector

Images via Balikesir Ekspres and Ekip Gazetesi 

Updated June, 2026

Middle East Water Woes Beg for Environmental Sewage Solutions

Michelle Simon
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0
Middle East Water Woes Beg for Environmental Sewage Solutions

camel on arab oasis with camel
The environment is politics and in the Middle East this is ever so stark, ravaged by internal socio-religio-political conflicts and international wars. Wars internally and externally are based on oppression, division, exclusion, land theft, and expropriation of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The Middle East is the globe’s oil capital. Those who want to own it are traditional colonial powers who will do anything and promise anything from political freedom to militarisation to democracy to get at it; it’s why war and conflict still proliferate in the region.

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Arab Gulf states producing supersized girls and boys, at risk for diabetes

Faisal O'Keefe
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0
Arab Gulf states producing supersized girls and boys, at risk for diabetes

fat middle east boy

Born in an economic boom, kids in oil-rich Arab Gulf States use their silver spoons to up caloric intact.

Blame laziness, love of Western brands, or ample disposable income,  but children across the Gulf region are getting fatter. Recent studies tag 20 percent of children in Dubai as overweight, and another 12% as obese. Their Gulf nations’ cousins in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar are just as hefty.

The core lifestyle of the world’s urban children, zip code be damned, is numbingly similar. Conditioned living spaces and electronic entertainments encourage an increasingy sedentary lifestyle. Children in the Gulf are nothing like their nimble agrarian ancestors. Informal exercise is all but extinct. Internet-based social networking brings the playdate indoors.  Besides, public parks and sports fields are hard to find in modern Gulf cities.

Why sweat outside with friends when you can sit in air-conditioned comfort and Skype and Facebook for hours?  Have mom order in a pizza or a bag of cheeseburgers while you’re at it.  You’re living the fatty-Emirati Dream.

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Saudi’s Parrot Fish Festival Undermines Red Sea Conservation

Linda Pappagallo
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100
Saudi’s Parrot Fish Festival Undermines Red Sea Conservation

parrot fish saudi arabiaAn archaic Saudia Arabian practice of trapping parrot fish in the Red Sea has to stop.

The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are a beautiful haven of marine and coastal biodiversity, created as a result of deep ocean rifting which began 70 million years ago and saw the separation of the Arabian plate from the African plate. Fortunately there is some movement amongst conservation biologists to protect this bioregion through the expansion of a carefully selected network of marine protected areas. Furthermore, legal frameworks such as the Jeddah Convention aim to establish a legally binding agreement which expresses the commitment and political will of parties (Djibouti, Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Egypt and Jordan) to tackle marine and coastal environmental issues through joint coordinated activities.

The basis for action is there, and so is the political will (at least on paper), nevertheless, several obstacles such as limited technical capacity, lack of data and scientific knowledge and limited funds make the process of formalizing agreements much harder. One other issue is tackling culturally sensitive practices.

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Syrian Stuffed Artichoke Hearts with Lamb

Miriam Kresh
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2
Syrian Stuffed Artichoke Hearts with Lamb

image-syrian-stuffed-artichokiesCelebrate springtime in the Middle East with these aromatic stuffed artichokes.

Fresh artichokes are all over Middle Eastern markets now. Lovers of the edible thistle enjoy scraping the steamed, seasoned leaves with their teeth and never mind getting melted butter or vinaigrette all over their fingers.

But there are many refined ways of filling artichokes, as we have noted before in our Moroccan stuffed artichoke hearts recipe. And Syrian cooks know just as much about stuffed artichokes as anyone else. In this recipe, the flavors of lamb and allspice enrich their delicate taste.

You may trim the artichokes of all their leaves and stuff the bare hearts, which is the traditional Syrian way, or pack the stuffing into the vegetables with leaves trimmed short and the whispy choke scraped out beforehand. Or buy frozen artichoke hearts and make your life easier.

Syrian Stuffed Artichokes

Ingredients:

1 kg. – 2 lbs artichoke hearts or 10 cleaned and trimmed fresh artichokes

250 grams – 1 lb. ground lamb

1 medium onion

1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups cold chicken stock

1 teaspoon corn starch

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt, and another 1/2 teaspoon

Pepper to taste

Method

The name comes from ardishok which means "earth thorn" in Arabic. It is called kinress in the Jewish Mishna, a word used in modern Arabic, according to Nature's Wealth, a book on the healing plants based on the teachings of Rambam, a Jewish sage. According to the Rambam, artichoke can heal urinary stones, and it lowers blood pressure. It can help cardiac pain, depression, and it may be an aphrodisiac. They should be avoided if you have impaired kidneys.
Artichokes, one of the first vegetables known to mankind

Preheat the oven to 190° C – 400° F.

Chop the onion and sauté in olive oil over medium heat till golden.

Add the meat, stirring to break up lumps. Cook 5 minutes, stirring once in a while.

Add the allspice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, more pepper if liked, and the parsley.

Stuff the artichokes with the meat mixture. Place them close together in a baking pan.

Blend stock, cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Pour this mixture over the artichokes.

Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the cover (it can be tin foil or baking paper) and bake a further 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

More Middle-Eastern artichoke recipes on Green Prophet:

Editor’s notes: the artichoke is one of the earliest vegetables known to man and it is native to the Eastern Mediterranean. The name comes from ardishok which means “earth thorn” in Arabic. It is called kinress in the Jewish Mishna, a word used in modern Arabic, according to Nature’s Wealth, a book on the healing plants based on the teachings of Rambam, a Jewish sage. According to the Rambam, artichoke can heal urinary stones, and it lowers blood pressure. It can help cardiac pain, depression, and it may be an aphrodisiac. They should be avoided if you have impaired kidneys.

 

 

Saudi’s Mecca is Becoming a Holy Sprawl

Tafline Laylin
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4
Saudi’s Mecca is Becoming a Holy Sprawl

architecture, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, urban, sprawl, unsustainable developmentDespite having enough solar power to energize the planet for the next 20 centuries, Saudi Arabia has instead reaped the benefits of its oil reserves for decades. This wealth has spurred a spate of massive developments in Mecca, transforming a small desert hamlet into a thriving metropolis. But this may be a curse for Islam’s holiest city and the 6 million pilgrims who flock there each year.

Last August, the Kingdom unveiled a $21.3 billion plan to upgrade the Grand Mosque in Mecca to accommodate an additional 2.5 million pilgrims a year. 20 Percent of the demolition has been completed, and a new $1.8 billion railway to link all of the holy sites in Mecca is also underway. How does one tap into the divine amidst so much noise and distraction?

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How can the Arab World Benefit from Climate Change Negotiations in Qatar?

Linda Pappagallo
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1
How can the Arab World Benefit from Climate Change Negotiations in Qatar?

The last international climate change negotiation (COP17) took place in Durban in 2011 and the outcomes were pretty disappointing given the urgency of the matter in hand. Unsatisfactory outcomes aside, climate change negotiations have been providing momentous opportunities for NGOs, individuals and the private sector to engage and exchange ideas on solutions to climate change mitigation.

This year Qatar will host the UN climate change conference, COP18, in December and hopefully this will also be an opportunity for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to step up the game in climate change activism . However two important things need to happen to ensure all countries in the MENA benefit.

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The Lorax Brings a Muddled Environmental Message to the Mideast

Brian Nitz
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5
The Lorax Brings a Muddled Environmental Message to the Mideast

environmental art, environmental degradation, The Lorax, film review 
“I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees.” What would nature’s ambassador tell us? Children’s author Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) used this question as inspiration for his classic ecological fable, The Lorax. His simple message is that when limited resources (such as truffula trees) are consumed without care, entire ecosystems (singing fish, brown barbaloots…) can vanish and paradise is lost.

This tragic tale was panned by some critics for being too apocalyptic and probably inappropriate for children. The 2012 movie loosely based on The Lorax is… well, it’s difficult to know where to begin. So let’s look back at the book and I’ll try to explain why I believe its message will resonate long after the movie is a forgotten tuft of Hollywood fluff.

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Jerusalem’s Train Track Park is hardly the Highline in NYC

Tafline Laylin
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0
Jerusalem’s Train Track Park is hardly the Highline in NYC

Highline-park-manhattan

The High Line Park built on a historic freight line in New York City (pictured below) is one of the most talked-about urban renewal programs in history. There is an entire website devoted to it, a special team maintains the verdant 23rd street lawn and another is responsible for removing ice and snow. This park has rules and bike racks and a printable map.

urban design, High Line, green space, urban planning, Jerusalem, green space

All future cities that incorporate train tracks into their urban parks are ill-fated to endure comparisons to NYC, and most likely, they will be judged inferior.

This includes Jerusalem and its humble Train Track Park. An idea conceived before the 2003 international design competition to transform the High Line was launched (and won by Diller Scofidio + Renfroon), Jerusalem may lack NYC’s amenities but not its vision.Jerusalem-train-track-park

The High Line is Born!

NYC’s newest park was born when locals rose up against a plan to demolish the freight tracks on Manhattan’s western fringe. Friends of the High Line subsequently formed in 1999 and have continued to oversee the now famous and highly coveted urban space since.

But what about the history of Jerusalem’s park? It developed as part of a scouting project for another park development, the Nahal Refa’im Park, according to Ha’aretz. Architect Yair Avigdor and Landscape Architect Shlmo Zeeri were looking for the park’s basin and discovered that it stood next to the Khan Train Station, which had closed in 1998.

Jerusalem-Railway-Park9

So they (just the two of them without a pile of supporters to back them up) proposed a plan to the municipality to incorporate the area between the Germany Colony station to the Malkha station into the overall park plan. The 6km park plan was approved. But no fanfare and no international design competition ensued.

It was just Avigdor and Zeeri left to transform the space that was designed to link otherwise disjointed neighborhoods, according to the paper, all with a very tight budget.

So although there are some benches and light fixtures, along with a bicycle path and mini parks where green space butts up against urban space, this park has none of NYC’s finesse. Instead of preserving the existing rails and tracks with wood, concrete was used instead in order to reduce maintenance, and other short cuts are also visible.

Even so, it’s almost unfair to make the comparison between this and the High Line. What’s important is that a plan to turn what Zeeri called “the Junkyard of Jerusalem” into an accessible public space, albeit a neglected one, was followed through with the commitment of a small group of individuals and completed.

:: Ha’aretz

Israeli EV Company Better Place Reports Millions In Losses

Shifra Mincer
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3

better place electric car denmark ash tray
Better Place is not doing as well as everyone expected, with financial losses running in the millions.

The idea seemed flawless: battery-powered cars that could run on 100% electricity and could be recharged almost instantly by swapping batteries at special charging stations. But despite all the optimistic predictions, Better Place, the Israeli company that has been trying to build the world’s first operational infratructure for electric vehicles (EV), has been facing a series of obstacles in moving ahead with its technology.

Israel Corp., which holds 32% of the company’s shares, reported that Better Place lost over 1.5 billion NIS ($433 million) since 2009, 760 million NIS ($204 million) of which was lost over the course of 2011 alone, and deployment of battery recharging and swapping stations has been delayed in both Denmark in Israel from the scheduled date this April to the summer.

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Saudis Could Export Solar for the Next Twenty Centuries

Susan Kraemer
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4
Saudis Could Export Solar for the Next Twenty Centuries

solar-Saudi-Arabia

Every square meter of Saudi Arabia produces an extraordinary 7 kilowatt hours of energy daily in each 12 hours of sun power. If the Saudis were to use up each days solar energy supply, or 12,425 TWh of electricity, it would be a 72 year supply.

Put another way, in just one day, enough solar energy hits Saudi sands to power the kingdom for 72 years, according to a study made by the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology.

That is an extraordinary resource. It is significantly more than the rest of the world. For example: as a Californian who used a typical 15 kilowatt hours of energy a day, this means my entire home could have been fully solar powered by just 2 square meters – or about 3 feet by 6 feet – of solar panels in Saudi Arabia!

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Absurd 24 Carat Gold-Plated iPads to Sell for $5,500

Tafline Laylin
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0
Absurd 24 Carat Gold-Plated iPads to Sell for $5,500

electronics, technology, Steve Jobs, iPad 3, Apple, natural resources, Gold, Gulf, Oil, Gold and Co. London encases electronics in 24 carat gold-plating; their best market? The Gulf, naturally.

It’s impossible and rude to speak for the dead, but we find it hard to believe that Steve Jobs would have wanted anything he designed covered in gold. But this is the Gulf and we’ve seen stranger things, including a white gold Mercedes and water bottles covered in swarovski crystals. Gold and Co. London will display their 24 carat gold-plated iPad3 at Damas Jewelry at the Dubai Mall, after which it will be auctioned for charity.

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Buy My Ex Wardrobe in Dubai

Shahi Hamad
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2
Buy My Ex Wardrobe in Dubai

Dubai-based initiative My Ex Wardrobe for selling and buying womens clothes

In today’s world, the privileged among us tend to live in a world of endless possibilities: endless food, endless clothes, even endless travel destinations. Some of these are great (the travel options) but some things are better in small doses to avoid waste.

One day Sian Rowland living in Dubai was clearing out her wardrobe when she realised just how much excess clothes she had. Things she no longer wore, skirts that didn’t fit and dresses with the label still on. Most woman have found themselves in this situation with more shops that we can keep up with and all too easy access to fashion, most woman (and men too) will find themselves only wearing 20 percent of the many item that crowd their ever-expanding wardrobes.

It was then that Sian and two of her sisters Teagan and Becky, all now living in Dubai, decided to start the initiative “My Ex Wardrobe” which in their own words: not only allows people to de-clutter their wardrobes but gives clothes a second chance at happiness.

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How To Make Paper from Potty

Karin Kloosterman
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0
How To Make Paper from Potty

I catch up with Applied Clean Tech to know more about their recycled toilet paper project Above: recycled poo pellets that serve as raw material for recycled paper

It will probably take a certain market approach and finesse to get people to accept, let alone truly appreciate, recycled toilet paper. But Refael Aharon, the CEO and founder of Applied Clean Tech, is convinced that his company has landed on a sort of goldmine. It has refined the process of turning the cellulose in sludge — toilet paper, fecal matter and washing machine lint — into new paper.

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Ceramic Fry Pan Company Neoflam Sues TV Show for False Report

Karin Kloosterman
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3
Ceramic Fry Pan Company Neoflam Sues TV Show for False Report

kolbotek frying pan neoflam, mom hitting panFrying pan company Neoflam smacks TV show with libel law suit

There was consumer chaos a few months ago in Israel when a local investigative report TV show Kolbotek, not unlike 60 Minutes in the US, tested ceramic frying pans and pots for potentially dangerous levels of toxic chemicals like cadmium and lead. The report was scathing. According to the show’s report several new companies on the market did not make the grade. Even though the interior surfaces of the pots and pans were clear, questionable amounts of toxins on the colorful outer surfaces could potentially leak into the food, especially if they were scratched, the report said.

One company Neoflam, based in Korea was singled out and as soon as the report was issued, local sales collapsed. The marketing manager for Neoflam Oren Hamama emailed Green Prophet hoping to set the record straight. He says that Neoflam’s products do pass all international standards testing bodies, and in response to the Kolbotek report Neoflam is suing the Israeli TV show for about NIS 5 million (about $1.5 million USD).

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