A team of pollution-weary Palestinians and Israelis are injecting environmental education into East Jerusalem schools, teaching young Palestinians new “green” habits.  They’re achieving cooperation in a region where even garbage is a political flashpoint.

The idea sprouted four years ago as a part of the Kidron Valley clean-up strategy. A planned sewage treatment plant was mothballed after political squabbling, but a team of Israelis and Palestinians are trying to resurrect the project.

They see a wider environmental mandate, with education at the top of their agenda, and launched green programs at ten schools with lessons in recycling and rainwater harvesting. Al Afaq Boys School and the Sur Baher Girls School, the first to participate, eagerly adopted environmentalism.

“In traditional Palestinian culture, no one threw anything out, they’d reuse it. With new technology it became easier to throw away,” said Khaled Abu Khaff, a manager at Only Green, the first enviro-education center in East Jerusalem and a volunteer at Al Afaq.

Plastic litter covers the approach to Al Afaq, but stops at the school gates.  Interior grounds are litter-free. The campus boasts solar panels and rainwater harvesting barrels.  Student Mohammed helped build a sculpture of Earth from recycled materials, proudly displayed at the school entrance. He says the projects taught him new ideas, “I’ve learned to save and take care of the things.”

Sur Baher students learn to make soap and toothpaste from natural ingredients, and science teacher Zoubaida Salman teaches them to build simple electrical circuits, too. They run an organic garden and maintain rainwater harvesting barrels, donated by US-based Water Resources Action Project. The barrels supplied 50% of the school’s water needs in 2011 and 2012.

Ideally, the students would take the behavior home, but when asked, only a few admit they have.

Israeli lawyers and project leaders Richard Laster and Dani Livney work to identify others open to localized green initiatives, which are funded in partnership with Only Green, Friends of the Earth Middle East, and Water Resources Action Project.

“We saw that there was much that needed doing. Alot of garbage; not much planning, if at all; and sewage,” Livney told The Christian Science Monitor.  “We felt the place to start would be environmental education, to change people’s mindsets.”

Teachers try to involve parents in activities, such as collecting home trash for reuse in school crafts. “At the beginning of the course the parents say, ‘You want us to collect trash?’” said teacher Hazar Khatteb. “But now they understand.”

In 2009, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel reported that the Jerusalem municipality provided 15,000 people in Sur Baher and neighboring Umm Tuba with only 104 trash bins. Regional waste collection and recycling is in its infancy.

Back at Al Afaq, the boys plan to turn a courtyard into a lab for recycling, rainwater harvesting and solar and wind energy projects, financed by a $15,000 donation from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and US Consulate in Jerusalem.  They hoped to start a program for visits by other Arab schoolchildren last April, but some of their equipment was vandalized in December, delaying the plan.

That vandalism could be evidence of community resentment from some who say inequity between East and West Jerusalem is a more important issue than environmental stewardship.  Abu Khaff says people complain about poor roads, not trash.

He said, “This type of [environmental] knowledge is not the top priority, but step by step we are changing that.”

Image of Old Jerusalem from Shutterstock

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Flush toilets create a real stink in slum communities. Not only do they require often non-existent sewage connections for safe disposal of waste, but they also drain already scarce water resources – no matter where they are. So the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.”

This initiative aims to reward innovators who design a modern system that requires no water or energy, leaks zero pollutants but recovers nutrients, and which costs no more than 5 cents per person per day to run. Sound impossible? Not for the developers of Ashpoopie – a secret formula that turns dog poop into ash within seconds.

To be frank, when we first learned about Ashpoopie designed by Professor Oded Shoseyov from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, we were more than a little skeptical. What secret formula can turn dog poop into ash without exacting some kind of environmental toll, we wondered?

But now Paulee Cleantech, founded in part by Oded Halperin, has applied Shoseyov’s patent-pending design to toilets that will turn human waste into a safe fertilizer within 30 seconds – without using a single drop of water!

A revolutionary water-free toilet

“For the solid waste, which also can include toilet paper, we are mixing it with our chemical formula for not more than 30 seconds and it will turn immediately into odorless, sterile fertilizer,” Halperin tells ISRAEL21c. “The fertilizer will be automatically dropped into a removable canister where it can be collected from time to time and than be used for field and/or home crops.”

Liquid waste will be collected and sterilized separately and then used to flush the toilets, mitigating the need for any additional water to keep this toilet system sanitary.

One of few Israeli companies to have captured the attention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Halperin told ISRAEL21c, Paulee Cleantech has received $110,000 to further research and develop their concept. And if they are initially successful, they can apply for an additional  1 or 1.5 million USD to create a working prototype.

Cleaning up our waterways

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Researchers from Pennsylvania State University have developed technology that treats waste water and generates energy at the same time – two priorities for Middle Eastern municipalities. Combining Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) technology developed in the Netherlands and Norway, which harvests energy where fresh water and sea water meet, with Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) that use organic matter to create an electric current, Professor Bruce Logan and his team have found the ultimate solution for developing countries that have limited access to water and power.

Where fresh water and salt water meet

RED technology involves placing fresh water and salt water in intermittent chambers of a fuel cell which are separated by membranes and then create an electrochemical charge, but Penn State researchers told the BBC that this technology has limitations.

First, it’s necessary for power plants to be situated alongside coastlines in order to make use of the salt water, and they require a great number of membranes to work.

But the MFCs aren’t ideal either. By using bacteria in waste water they can create an electric current and substitute ammonium bicarbonate solution for salt water such that they can be used anywhere, but they operate slowly and don’t produce a lot of power.

But used together, the separate technologies are much more viable.

Two is better than one

“In our process, we have the MFC part which is treating waste water and creating energy, and we have the RED stack which is just boosting that process, it’s making it happen more efficiently,” Logan told the BBC.

Although designed for use in developing countries, this technology could also be used in Gulf countries that have no shortage of either salt or waste water, but a frightening dearth of fresh water.

And though these states are oil producers, local governments are striving to curtail domestic energy supplies in order to prolong the life of this valuable export commodity.

The National recently reported that three universities in the United Arab Emirates have developed a Masters program devoted to finding solutions to water issues, but very few students are signing up – signaling both a lack of awareness and funding for serious problems that await all seven emirates in the coming decades.

We don’t usually promote imported solutions, but we’re running out of time. This latest development from Penn State is at least worth a look.

The details of Penn State’s waste water treatment system and energy generator first appeared in the journal Science. 

:: BBC

More on water and energy issues in the Middle East:

Yemen Running Dry as Water Shortages Reaches Extreme Levels

Nuclear-Powered Water for the UAE?

What Abu Dhabi Plans for When the Water Runs Out

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California-based startup company Blueseed has plans to either build or retrofit a ship that will provide accommodation and office space for talented foreign innovators who don’t meet America’s stringent working visa regulations. Since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, even the brightest would-be entrepreneurs have met serious legislative barriers to getting their companies off the ground in Silicon Valley.

Blueseed’s CEO Max Marty and his team aims to change all that by giving 1,000 of the best entrepreneurs a chance to develop their ideas “in an ecosystem designed for their success” in the contiguous zone just 12 nautical miles from San Francisco. Although still in the planning stage, Paypal’s founder Peter Thiel has already entered the 500K USD “seed funding” round of the project, which will also showcase cutting edge waste management and energy generating technologies. 

Wasted talent

So much foreign talent is wasted as a result of the United States’ immigration laws, which turns out to be an impediment to growth in America. Blueseed’s innovation hub will reverse that trend by allowing visionary techies with a passport to live and work on the adapted ship.

Albeit just a short ferry ride from San Francisco, the hub’s residents will have access to the internet, as well as entertainment, fitness, and medical facilities on board. They will also be able to purchase food around the clock.

Blueseed’s green vision

Making their offshore venture “green” is a priority and Blueseed is eager to incorporate new green technologies into the ship’s design. Marty explained in an email interview that technology has evolved to such an extent that it is possible to make waste water almost fit for human consumption, and that a host of renewable energy opportunities now exist.

However, Marty is concerned to find applications that are both environmentally sensible and financially viable, and hopes to connect with individuals or organizations that can pose solutions to these challenges.

Opportunities for clean tech firms

Although it is not impossible for startups to succeed in the Middle East, this could be an excellent opportunity for innovators in the region to spread their wings and enjoy the support of a well-established network of go-getters.

If you are serious about helping Blueseed turn their offshore visa-free facility into a lean, green machine and advancing your own clean tech savvy in the process, contact Max Marty at max [at] blueseed [dot] co.

Tafline Laylin adapted this story from an interview she conducted with Blueseed’s Max Marty and Dan Dascalescu for her work at Inhabitat.

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