“You can see the dirt rot in the sun, and you can smell it. There are areas you cannot even approach because the stench is so bad,” said the local activist. “People are suffering from it.”

Solid waste disposal and collection has been severely disrupted in embattled areas of Syria, more than two years into a conflict that has spurred a public health crisis. In areas held by the rebels, the state has all but stopped providing waste collection services. Combined with worsening hygiene and soaring summer heat, the uncontrolled garbage is putting about five million people at risk of disease, according to Ahmedou Bahah, manager of water and sanitation programmes for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Syria.

“In July, temperatures will increase to up to 40 degrees, which poses a significant public health hazard in connection with the lack of clean water supply and waste management,” he told IRIN.

In the embattled districts of Homs, state dustcarts have not been seen for the past 16 months, since government troops started a devastating military campaign. Instead, civil activist networks have sprung up, organizing committees tasked with cleaning the streets.

“We collect all the trash in one place until there is a heap as big as a mountain,” said Mohammed*, a local activist. Usually, the activists create makeshift dumpsters (piles of rubbish) in areas that are now empty because residents have fled.

“Once or twice a week, we’d get a truck and move it outside. It’s dangerous, though, because you have to pass checkpoints, and the soldiers often accuse us of smuggling weapons inside,” he said. “Sometimes people have been arrested, and sometimes they have forced us to unload everything.”

Local efforts are also hampered by the ongoing clashes and limited capacities.

“We’ve tried to solve this problem, but it’s still bad,” said Ahmed, an activist in Albara, a town of 20,000 in the Jebel Azzawieh region of rebel-held Idlib Governorate. “You can find volunteers to collect the trash for one day or two, but not every day, and we don’t have funds to pay salaries.”

In addition, Ahmed said, to take away the refuse, they need trucks and fuel, which is expensive and not always available. “It’s a big town, so you need at least three vehicles if you want to clear the streets, but sometimes we can find only one.”

“Whenever there is fighting, there is a problem,” said Adel, the activist in Hama. Though the city is militarily under regime control, public services have severely eroded, he said, while intermittent clashes make it difficult for the residents to clear their own streets. For instance, snipers sometimes make it almost impossible to cross the streets, let alone walk around and collect the rubbish, he added.

When the army seals off certain districts, activists sometimes cannot take out the waste for weeks. “Then we bury it in the ground because there is nothing else we can do,” Mohammed said.

Coinciding with a general collapse of infrastructure as well as a severe disruption of the health system – the World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 35 percent of the country’s hospitals are out of service – the pile-up of rubbish is likely to lead to a proliferation of diseases, according to Basel al Yousfi, director of WHO’s Centre for Environmental Health Activities in the Jordanian capital Amman.

“Waste accumulations in streets are breeding sites for pests such as mosquitoes, flies and mice that could transmit many diseases such as Leishmaniasis, causing epidemics and outbreaks, particularly in emergency and conflict situations.”

In addition, al Yousfi warned, odours due to biodegradation might lead to serious respiratory problems.

Already, reported outbreaks of Leishmaniasis, a disease transmitted by a sand fly that leads to skin ulcers resembling leprosy, have increased dramatically. According to WHO, humans can be infected if bitten by female sandflies after they have bred in waste. Internal displacement and limited access to health care are also contributing to the spread of the disease.

Leishmaniasis has been on the rise in the city of Homs, residents and activists say, but Aleppo city, as well as the rural parts of Aleppo and Homs governorates, are worst affected, with local NGOs reporting as many as 4,000 cases in each area.

“We cannot confirm these figures, but if hygiene standards continue to deteriorate, the spread of Leishmaniasis could reach catastrophic levels,” UNICEF’s Bahah said.

Insects, especially flies, have been multiplying since the start of the summer, said Ahmed, the activist in Idlib.

“You have Leishmaniasis in many places now. It’s gotten worse since the start of the summer. This is why we are now trying harder to take away the trash. People are starting to fear for their health.”

Though the rise of communicable diseases in Syria like typhoid, hepatitis, cholera and dysentery is mainly attributed to shortages of clean water – according to UNICEF, the availability of safe water in Syria is one third what it was before the crisis – the amount of waste putrefying in residential neighbourhoods is aggravating an already critical health situation.

According to WHO, acute watery diarrhoea increased by 172 percent between January and May 2013, from 243 to 660 reported cases. Hepatitis A increased by 219 percent from 48 to 153 cases in the same period.

As the peak of summer heat approaches, UNICEF has started implementing a contingency plan to reduce the risk of diseases related to hygiene and sanitation.

It is supporting communities collecting and transporting solid waste and working with local partners to raise awareness and provide hygiene items and pesticides. Civil society activists in Aleppo are also receiving support in garbage clean-up from the Jesuit Refugee Service.

But aid agencies and civil society activists face many logistical challenges.

“Security is one of the main problems,” Bahah said. “Sometimes trucks full of waste are unloaded three to four times at checkpoints before reaching the dumpsters. This is why we are negotiating with the authorities now.”

Rebel forces have also hampered attempts to bring the waste situation under control. On the highway between Hama and Homs, Bahah said, they have blocked aid convoys carrying petrol needed for the dust carts because they suspect the fuel will end up being used by the army.

In rebel-held districts of the capital Damascus, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is trying to fill the gap left by the state. “But it’s obviously difficult because when there’s shelling, nobody cares about cleaning the streets. So, in some districts, the situation is disastrous. You even see dead animals lying in the streets.”

When the FSA penetrated into the city centre in July last year and clashes broke out, public services were suspended for about a week, highlighting the risks for a city of two million people. “It was horrible – there was waste everywhere,” said Modar, a local student who gave only his first name. “Now we can really picture what will happen if the FSA should one day enter the city centre.”

Click here for more IRIN reporting on how a lack of access to water, sanitation and proper hygiene is threatening Syrians and others across the region.

*not a real name

This is reposted from IRIN; image of garbage pile in Aleppo via National Post

The post Uncontrolled Garbage Threatens Lives in Syria appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israeli street artist Nitzan Mintz writes her poems on the streets of Tel Aviv, using disregarded materials she collects from dumpsters and public spaces. “I use only recycled materials in my art,” she said.

Nitzan is not alone. Artists across the Middle East have responded to the massive recycling crisis by upcycling trash into art. There are many benefits for artists that use waste to create, both financial and creative.

“I use birdcages, pieces of wood, anything,” said Nitzan.

“I love the connection between me and these objects I find. They inspire me to make something new. It’s like a gift from God. I need art materials and I find them.”

She composes her art according the particular site, incorporating space and environment into her designs. And unlike many street artists, Nitzan signs her real name to all her work. “I take full responsibility for my art in the streets,” she said in an interview with Times of Israel. “I never harm the environment or cause damage to people’s property.”

Here is an example of a work she made with local artists Gili Peleg and Signor Gi.

Nitzan’s Hebrew poetry murals are a great example of eco-friendly innovation, turning garbage into art. And we look forward to seeing more of her work around Israel.

Images via the artist and Urban Existenz 

Read more about sustainable art in the Middle East:
Ali Lamu Upcycles Weathered Dhow Sails into Inspiring Art
White Trash, An Ecological Group Exhibition, Opens in Tel Aviv Next Week
Dazzling Carpet of Plastic Bottles Adorns the Moroccan Desert

The post Israeli Poet Nitzan Mintz Makes Sustainable Art Stick To The Streets appeared first on Green Prophet.

Maybe you saw the wonderful movie, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Or maybe you’d read stories on Green Prophet about Masdar, or Shams, the world’s largest CSP plant in Abu Dhabi. Arab nations and their economies are certainly not all about oil and natural gas these days, and in fact these nations are becoming leaders in amazing projects in renewable energy. Now in the news: Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates has just announced the creation of an $850 million incinerator plant which will take garbage from the city and “burn” it into green fuel. 

The new plant is to be built at the Mussaffah Sea Port, according to The National, and is being commissioned by the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company. Suppliers and supporters start your business tender engines!

Figures estimate that a million metric tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) will be burned every year, to produce 100 megawatts of energy, that’s the same amount of power as the world’s largest CSP plant, Shams which also opened in March in Abu Dhabi.

The National Energy company which goes by the abbreviation TAQA will be looking for builders and operators, and to have the plant ready by 2016 or 2017. It is expected to run for at least 40 years.

Saif Al Sayari, executive officer and head of TAQA’s energy solutions division said: “The waste for our plant in Abu Dhabi will come from various collection points in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and will be diverted from landfill at Al Dhafra.”

Emirates Rail, the national railway of the region may be used to divert some of the waste. And waste will include solid residential as well as commercial and industrial.

Waste heat will generate steam to drive a turbine to produce green electricity.

“It is not too different to what we do at our other eight thermal power plants in the UAE, which all burn natural gas,” Al Sayari noted.

New technologies have produced better filters for removing contaminants that would otherwise enter the air. “The emissions will fall well within globally recognised guidelines, such as the Waste Incineration Directive, applicable to all European plants, of which there are hundreds,” Al Sayari noted.

According to estimates the 100 MW plant will prevent more than a million tonnes of CO2 or carbon dioxide from entering the air. Carbon dioxide is used to quantify all types of greenhouse gas including methane. Greenhouse gas emissions are what’s causing global warming and a forecasted radical climate change.

The plan here isn’t just to burn everything in sight, but to use the incinerator as a last stop for all waste that cannot be sorted and recycled. The City of Abu Dhabi currently produces about 5,000 tonnes of waste per day. The new plant will consume about half of that. A small pilot will be built on Delma Island before the larger plant goes into operation.

Meanwhile in other good news, Westin Abu Dhabi is turning food waste from its golf resort into fertilizer, and the city of Abu Dhabi’s area farms (yes there are farms in the desert!) is converting farm waste into compost.

::The National

Image via serdal

The post Abu Dhabi Dump to Power 100 MW Green Energy Incinerator appeared first on Green Prophet.

Year Two in the Hashemite Kingdom, and my honeymoon with Amman is kaput.  It’s impossible to keep the romance alive when your beloved is so totally…trashy. At work, shopping for trash receptacles for a new airport terminal, I stumbled across some wacky waste bins that might’ve saved my relationship with my new hometown.

Unlikely that the Greater Amman Municipality will splurge on these for every corner, but cool cans like these might inspire folks to properly dispose of their Jordanian junk.  (A tidy girl can dream…). Here are ten great and green waste bins for keeping your trash.

1. Automatic Opening Can

No matter how clean you may be, your kitchen garbage pail is filthy. Rotten food, liquids and dust make for an icky mess that splatters everywhere: nobody likes to touch them. These auto-cans have been on the market for years. Infrared sensors let cans open automatically, based on detection of motion within a certain range. Lids close quickly after you make your dirty deposit.

2. Clean Cubes

The simplest trash bin on this list is Clean Cubes: an eco-friendly, biodegradable, disposable and recyclable collapsible “box” which holds a standard garbage bag in place.  Easy to clean, easy to store, Clean Cubes received the 2012 International Housewares Association Innovation Award. ($10 on Amazon)

3. Expando-bin

This expandable bin, designed by Front, expands and contracts according to the stuff you deposit.  Sleek, smart and pretty: not a typical description of a garbage pail. ($780 at Scandinavian Design Center)

4. The Little Egg

The Ovetto Bin (Italian for little egg) was designed by Italian architect Gianluca Soldi to simplify trash sorting. The plastic oval is divided into three separate compartments for organics, plastics, papers (or any sorting method you choose).  Different color doors help you identify what goes where.  Compartments are lined with traditional garbage bags to allow easy emptying.  ($272  at ecocentric)

5. Urbano Eco-Bin

Winner of the 2005 Pratt Product Design Competition, designer Kevin McElroy’s clever trash can allows you to store and reuse the plastic bags that you collect from shopping in a neat, organized way. Simply loop trash bags around the cut-out sides and push them all the way down, creating a visual of stacked handles all along the side. When you are ready to use one, just move it up to the handles and hook so that it won’t fall in on itself. ($19 at Uncommon Goods)

6.  Bar Code Bin

What to do is you’re too colorblind to use the Ovetto Bin? Let the bar code bin figure your recycling for you.

Just make like a cashier and swipe your (originally labeled) junk over the top and the appropriate bin will open automatically. By designer Woo Seok Park, this prototype hasn’t hit the marketplace yet.

7.  Armstrong Bin

Deriving its name from the original moon-walker, Neil Armstrong, designers Sukwon Park and Sungwoo Park conceived of this gizmo to let you compress your daily volume of trash. Drop in your junk, and then stomp on the lid.  You may not be able to totally eliminate your wastestream, but you can reduce the amount of space it will take in landfills. Still in development, can you imagine the mess if the stomping burst the liner bag?

8.  Minus Pail

Turkish designer Cem Tutuncuoglu dreamed up this high-tech gadget to help reduce trash stink – a problem in hot countries: it’s refrigerated to a temperature of your choosing.  A literally cool concept, but how much energy does this consume? And isn’t composting the best afterlife for discarded organics?

9.  Crusader’s Bin

The Crusades can be viewed from many angles, and using a medieval helmet to dump your dirties might be great fun for anyone not viewing the Crusaders as the noblest of heroes.  This bin is formed from cast resin with a faux hammered-metal finish. ($50 at Design Toscano, currently out of stock)

10.  Gold Plated Garbage Can

The perfect gift for your favorite Gulf royal: a classic trash can dipped in real gold.  Swiss pop artist Sylvie Fleur crafted only (?) 25 pieces which sold for $15,000 each. Possibly the perfect accessory for the garage where you park your solid gold Mercedes.

The post 10 Cool Garbage Cans for Middle East Trash appeared first on Green Prophet.

Plastic bags and cigarette butts are part of the natural landscape in contemporary Jordan. Bottles roll like tumbleweed across Amman’s early morning streets. Residents say the city’s sanitation services are deteriorating, according to The Jordan Times, but towering trash and burst garbage bags, overloaded waste bins and erratic municipal collection tell the story in more sensual way – the city stinks.

The problem doesn’t discriminate, residents in east and west Amman alike tell of smelly, rotting trash attracting flies, rats and feral cats, despite citizen’s paying regular sanitation fees as part of their monthly water bills.

“Amman was never like this before.  The piles of trash are so high that we can no longer walk in the streets”, said Bilal Abu Jaija, who lives in the Tlaa Al Ali neighborhood.

Osama Rabadi, visiting from the United Arab Emirates, found the litter condition shocking:  “I would never imagine in a thousand years that Amman’s streets would be this dirty,” said the engineer, who was visiting his parents in Ashrafieh.

Parents are concerned about the health hazards of accumulated waste.  Seham Obeidat said, “We wait for three days or so for the garbage collector to come. Flies are everywhere and the neighborhood stinks.  We even stopped sitting on the balcony.”  Obeidat lives near 7^th Circle.

The fleet of municipal garbage trucks hasn’t been replaced or refurbished in five years, said Mohammad Amaireh, Director of the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) waste department.  And while GAM hasn’t hired new garbagemen nor purchased additional bins, they have launched a feel-good program to curb littering.

Sponsored by automotive service station conglomerate Total Jordan, GAM’s L’Amman Baitna’ (which translates to Amman, Our Home) encourages citizens to actively keep roads and byways clean.

Total, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, runs 21 service stations across the Kingdom.  They’re handing out 10,000 waste bags at all their Amman stations, bags designed specifically for use in cars to help discourage roadway littering.

Mehmet Celepoglu, Total Jordan’s Managing Director, said, “In all our operations, Total Jordan strongly considers respect for the environment as one of our top priorities.”  Their underwriting of the program is generous and well-intended. But why do I think the bags will be filled up and tossed out car windows?

Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, residents want city waste bins removed. 

It’s a classic case of “you say toMAYto, I say toMAHto”.

While Ammanians are begging for more waste containers and better collection, people in Abu Dhabi are complaining because there are too many municipal garbage bins in their Al Saada Street neighborhood.

Residents told The National that the unsightly city bins block their car parking bays, and detract from “the area’s beauty,” imbuing the air with a foul smell of discarded food.

The Center of Waste Management (CWM) hired two companies to collect rubbish in Abu Dhabi city. The companies place large waste bins in populous neighborhoods and smaller ones elsewhere as needed.  This particular part of the city is home to large villas, most of which have two or three containers along their frontage to support the high volume of waste that they generate.

The neighborhood is quiet in daytime, with plenty of parking. But in the evening, parking becomes problematic because bins block some spots.  Some residents say the bins are frequently deposited on footpaths and in parking bays. CWM has requested inspectors to do an immediate site visit and come back with a full report in order for the management to take action.

Uthman Ahmed, a local, said: “These scattered bins generate a foul smell and it’s unhealthy. In the evening we can’t park as collection vans also come to collect the rubbish.”

Now, wait a minute. Garbage, not containers, generate bad smells. And the reason for dedicated trash drop-off points is so the trash can be systematically picked up. Maybe the containers aren’t closing properly or perhaps some training (as was done in Dubai) is needed for folks to learn to reseal lids after dropping in their junk.

Garbage trucks are loud and smelly.  To avoid traffic problems, collection in New York City and Hoboken typically occur pre-dawn.  I have the under-eye circles to prove this: but it’s the only way to sidestep conflict between car traffic and trucks.

Too few places to stow trash?  Too many?  In either case, the solutions are dependent on municipal assessment and action. Look to nations where garbage collection is a long-standing practice.  Learn from their mistakes. Bottom line is waste management is a process dependent on regular action and quick response.  Instead, there’s just a mountain of trash talk happening here.

Images taken today on my street in Jabal Amman

The post Amman Infested with Litterbugs While Emiratis Cry Foul appeared first on Green Prophet.

Egyptian brothers Mostafa and Mohamed Nassar have designed a clever two-meter tall waste separator that aims to make recycling in Abu Dhabi and the other Emirates “as easy as pressing a button,” The National reports.Providers of steel solutions for construction, oil and gas industries and manufacturing plants, the Abu-Dhabi-raised pair believe that collecting recyclables can be profitable for landlords. But more importantly, they say, Gulf recycling rates will never increase unless the process is made entirely more convenient than it is currently. That’s where the WMS Metal Industries’ ENVIRO waste separator comes in handy.

Mostafa Nasser explained to the paper that at present, anyone who wants to recycle have to go out of their way to find central collection points as there are rarely the kind of door-to-door services we are accustomed to in western countries.

Consequent, all but the most diehard environmentalists are motivated to sort their waste and ensure that it finds its way to processing plants. So the Nassers hope to get landlords of apartment buildings interested in the profit that can be gained from a successful recycling program and already have plans to install their separator in Abu Dhabi’s central market and New York University Abu Dhabi.

So how does it work?

A control panel adjacent to rubbish shoots allows users to choose whether they are depositing paper, plastic, glass, metal or general waste. This requires pre-sorting at the front end, but the separator reduces the amount of sorting that has to be done on the back end of the recycling system.

Installed at the end of the rubbish chute, the head inside the separator pivots depending on the user selection and swings around to deposit the recyclables or waste in the appropriate trolly. Customizable depending on the exigencies of each building, the system allows for up to six different selections.

The Nasser brothers told The National that a 20 storey apartment building with eight apartments on each floor could net approximately $1,900 by collecting recyclables and selling them to processing plants – a comfortable income for owners of more than one property.

In the process of applying for a US patent, the pair add that people in the Gulf are not especially industrious and homegrown solutions are rare. Meanwhile, as the Emirates become buried beneath the weight of their own waste, with camels choking on plastic and water bottle consumption at unreasonable rates, recycling is becoming increasingly important.

“But more people are starting to tap into their creativity and take more responsibility for their destinies, said Mohamed.

:: The National

More on Trash and Recycling in Gulf States:
A Plastic Pollution Cocktail: Toxic Chemicals in Every Day Items
Gulf Recycling Machines Turn Waste into an Advertising Opportunity
Dubai Malls That Fail to Recycle Waste Will be Fined

The post Egyptian Brothers Design a Clever Separator for Gulf Recyclables appeared first on Green Prophet.

Each cabinet represents a chapter in Pamuk’s book of the same name in which the main character, Kemal Basmaci, the son of a wealthy industrialist, collects artifacts that remind him of his cousin – a poor sales woman (who is also his cousin) with whom he is completely smitten. 

Today’s consumerism has grown to feverish heights compared to that of Istanbul during the 1970s’s, the time period in which The Museum of Innocence is set.

But for the book’s protagonist, things take on a different significance. After a series of events cuts short a passionate love affair with his lower-classed relative Fusun, Basmaci begins to collect items that remind him of the time he shared with her. For years he collects these items with the intention of eventually placing them in a museum, a pastime that becomes increasingly obsessive and unhealthy.

The objects include shoes, an old sink, ID cards and even a toothbrush.

In an interview with Qantara, Pamuk said:

I love the profane magic such things possess and that one discovers this only at the second glance. Just think how it is to find an old cinema ticket, by chance, in a jacket pocket, years after you saw the film. Suddenly everything comes back to you – not only the film but the smell of the cinema and the atmosphere of the evening. Such things bring back memories, tell us entire stories.

Perhaps accidentally, The Museum of Innocence draws attention to how drastically the relevance of having things has changed in four decades; today, our incessant desire to own certain objects such as smart phones, tablets (some even gold-plated) and even the latest round of eco-gadgets threatens our very existence as natural resources are becoming dangerously scarce and landfills and oceans are overflowing with waste.

Instead of holding magic, many of the objects we now possess are emblems of our self-destruction much in the same way that with every new possession, Basmaci drove himself deeper into his misaligned obsession with Fusun. An underlying theme seems to be that an over-attachment to material objects of any kind or for any reason gives rise to problematic consequences.

In any case, we love the novelty of Pamuk’s Istanbul museum, which was realized over a decade and contains numerous hidden treasures, as a powerful reflection on the nature of stuff – Turkish stuff – and what it reveals of Turkey’s socio-politico evolution over the last four decades.

image via Dorian Jones 

Relevant Stories on Stuff and How it Hurts the Planet:
Mazzy Reviews the Story of Stuff
Where Stuff Comes From and Where it Goes
3 Minute Video Shows How Humans Devoured Earth in 250 Years

The post Nobel Winner Orhan Pamuk Devotes a Museum to Ordinary Things appeared first on Green Prophet.

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.

Coating and plastics alternatives

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

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After the hustle and bustle of Tunisia’s capital medina dies down, the kids come out to play – in the trash! A large open area just a few blocks from the main tourist attraction, a space between two buildings has been converted into an unofficial dump full of disused toilets, chemicals, and all manner of organic and recyclable waste.

Compared to Egypt, Tunisia has a 5 star waste management system but lags when compared to European cities. In 2009, 10 landfills serviced 10 million people. But now, with help from World Bank funds, nine new landfills are being created throughout the country and a 5th cell will be added to one in Tunis. Check out our photos of just one of 400 uncontrolled dumps in the country.

2.25 Million Tonnes of Trash Annually

A 2010 waste management report released by ANGed, the government office responsible for ensuring the most expedient treatment of waste in Tunisia, shows that the country produces approximately 2.25 million tonnes of waste each year.

Of this, 70% is properly disposed of in regulated landfills, although government officials then acknowledged that there were virtually no recycling or compositing facilities equipped with diverting unnecessary waste.

Municipalities are responsible for paying 20% of the costs of trash collection, while the state takes care of the rest, but many rural areas lack the funds necessary to fulfill these obligations. This was before the Jasmine Revolution and before the inexperienced ruling Islamic party won power in the country’s first fair elections.

Many secular Tunisians on the street have voiced concern that the ruling party does a lot of talking but less acting; they also worry how relatively well-equipped municipal programs will fare under the Islamic party’s control.

Arab Spring Funds

Yet one side effect of the Arab Spring is the western world’s eagerness to support what they hope will be a democratic process. Case in point: the World Bank has committed to a USD 22 million loan that will help ANGed to improve its outdated infrastructure.

Unmanaged waste at unofficial dumps release methane gas and create a breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies. Plus, it’s a public health concern when children are running through dumps full of improperly disposed chemicals and other hazardous materials, not to mention that chasing balls through heaps of trash can’t be fun for anyone.

But at least the issue is being addressed. We see ANGed on the streets every night clearing the day’s accumulated litter – particularly in areas frequented by tourists, and although downtown Avenue Habib Bourguiba can get cruddy at times, overall it’s a pleasant place to go for a stroll.

Let’s hope Cairo will take cues from Tunis!

More on Waste Management in the Middle East and North Africa:

Dubai Malls That Fail to Recycle Waste Will be Fined

Empower to Cool Dubai With Recycled Sewage

How to Handle 30 Million Tonnes of Agricultural Waste in Egypt?

The post Another Day in Tunisia: Chasing Balls Through Trash (PHOTOS) appeared first on Green Prophet.

Children exposed to pollution are more likely to develop autism, attention deficit disorder, and dyslexia, according to Haaretz. These findings were unveiled by both scientists at a recent conference in Israel, and those are only the dangers we know about. Modern society manufactures and uses 800,000 new chemicals, hundreds of which show up in children’s blood tests.

It will take decades or more to understand how each chemical affects children’s health (and the economy), but at least one thing is certain: 25% of autism cases can be attributed to environmental factors, according to Philip Landrigan from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. This is especially disturbing for those of us in the Middle East, where we have higher rates of all kinds of pollution than most.

Landrigan explained that the international rise of autism and attention deficit disorder cases can’t be explained by genetics alone, or by higher rates of diagnosis. And while pollution is also harmful to adults and the environment, he says children are especially vulnerable.

Haaretz reports:

Exposure to substances such as lead, mercury and pesticides is particularly dangerous for children, because they are more sensitive to these materials – in part because their brains are still developing, Landrigan said. A child’s body also breaks down poisonous materials less efficiently than the adult body does, and any given quantity of chemical has more of an impact on a child because it constitutes a larger proportion of his body mass.

The United States and Europe have decent regulatory controls for manufacturers producing harmful chemicals, and public health officials are sort of monitoring the situation, but pollution is low on the list of priorities for countries in the Middle East.

Although major offenders, in the midst of so many other economic, political, and social problems, countries such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon are unlikely to get a handle on their problems any time soon. Not only that, but these conditions probably won’t be diagnosed or treated.

Here are just a few examples of pollution in the Middle East and North Africa:

Egypt’s Black Cloud:

In addition to the extraordinary pollution that already defines life in Cairo – as a result of thousands of cars on the road and poor waste management systems, every year around rice harvest time, what locals call the “black cloud” hovers over the city.

Mahmud Abdel Meguid, chairman of the state-run Abbasiya Chest Hospital, told IRIN. “This pollution causes a long list of diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chest sensitivity at best, and respiratory failure at worst.”

Mercury Disposal in Egypt:

Long after the rest of the world took control of mercury disposal, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) finally teamed up with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in 2007 to do the same in Egypt. Only recently has a proper mercury disposal facility been opened in Alexandria, where mercury-filled fluorescent tubes and other hazardous waste is now handled. Even so, 10 million – 1/4 of the tubes manufactured in the country – end up in landfills and leach into the environment.

Iran’s Air Pollution:

The World Health Organization estimates that 27 people a day die as a result of Iran’s chronic air pollution. In part this is caused by old cars that don’t meet modern emissions requirements, which in turn can be partially attributed to economic sanctions that have limited the country’s imports.

Mining Silt, Sewage, and Transformer Waste Streaming into Iraq’s Rivers:

After decades of on and off war, Iraq’s environmental problems are arguably greater than virtually any other country in the region. Among other problems, they are dealing with nuclear waste – contributing to high rates of deformed babies in Fallujah – and according to environmental conservationists Nature Iraq, entire sewage loads of Sulaimani are dumped into the Tangero river, which is used to irrigate agricultural fields and water livestock around Sulaimani, Arbat, Said Sadiq and New Halabja.

Lebanon – Sewage and Trash at Sea:

Like Egypt and Iraq, Lebanon has a serious trash problem. And sewage treatment facilities are badly in need of repair and management. This is a shame for a country that many find unique, and which boasts majestic but flailing cedar forests. There are hopeful stories of recycling and activism, but the government’s overall environmental neglect is bound to have long term effects on their children’s future.

:: Haaretz

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