Photo by: Cedar Environmental

At only a few feet away from the frontier with the Jewish state, stands the recycling center of Aitaroun. A 700 square meters setting destroyed by two missiles during the war, only to be renovated by the financial assistance of the Italian government. The five employees of the center sort daily, patiently, and for four hours materials like potato skins, plastic bottles and used clothes, before the recycling. “We wanted to give the example of a rural society that not only gets rid of its waste but also profits from it, in order to invest in organic agriculture” explains Ziad Abi Chaker from “Cedar Environmental”, a Lebanese enterprise specialized in recycling technologies. “The people living in the town were very bothered by the smell of the garbage that was once burned. For them this project is like a blessing” he says.

“Cedar Environmental” conducted several other projects like this one. It established many recycling units in the South of Lebanon: in Kfar Sir, Khirbet Silem, El Qalaiaa, Qabrikha, Jbaam and Naqoura. However, in Aitaroun, these “Green” engineers have placed 0% waste and the transformation of the organic waste into useful compost to be used in agriculture, as their objectives.

“Everything is recycled, nothing is thrown away” explains Mr. Abi Chaker. Six tons of domestic waste are discharged by a truck coming on a daily basis from Aitaroun (8000 habitants and from a town near Blida (2000 habitants), and are treated by local machines. The “Star” of these machines is the drum composter, where the organic waste is mixed with an enzymatic mixture, in order to accelerate its fermentation, whereas they stay in process for three days.