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In a small factory in the city of Tripoli, the glass that broke a month ago due to the explosion of the port of Beirut on the inhabitants of the capital and filled its streets, enters a huge oven to come out in the form of a jug or jug traditional.
On August 4, the explosion in the port knocked down countless doors and windows in Beirut and its suburbs, and the streets of the capital were covered with piles of broken glass falling from buildings, houses and shops.
In Tripoli, the capital of northern Lebanon, two factories run by two families have chosen to cooperate with an initiative launched by environmental activists to recycle tens of tons of broken glass in Beirut.
“We work 24 hours a day,” 24-year-old Wissam Hammoud from the Uniglas factory told AFP. “The explosion caused large amounts of broken glass and organizations bring them to us for reprocessing.”
The factory, which was founded by Hammoud’s grandfather, has so far received between 20 and 22 tonnes of glass, with more awaiting.
Glass trucks arrive at the factory, workers in thick gloves on the floor unload them, remove the dirt before transporting it in large containers to the dark room inside.
One of them puts quantity after quantity in the huge oven, so that it comes out like a paste from a flame, before one of the workers blows into it through a long tube, to take the shape of a bowl or a jug.
Flying glass was a leading cause of death for a large number of wounded who reached hospitals in Beirut and its suburbs after the explosion, which killed 191 people and injured more than 6,500.
More than a month after its fall, trucks loaded with glass are still moving between Beirut and Tripoli.
In the first days after the explosion, Ziad Abi Shaker, founder of the Cedar Environmental Company, was quick to cooperate with civil society organizations and volunteer groups to develop a plan to avoid dumping huge piles of glass in landfills.
“We found that it is possible that our local factories benefit from at least some of the broken glass as a raw material,” says Abi Shaker, adding: “So we changed the route of glass from landfills and started providing it free to our local factories. “
The initiative has provided the Tripoli manufacturers with 58 tonnes of glass, according to Abu Shaker, who hopes to ship 250 tonnes if he gets the necessary funding.
He estimated that the explosion broke more than 5,000 tons of glass.
And from the first days after the explosion, the initiative announced a phone number for anyone who wanted to send broken glass to call from their home or store.
Lebanon, a country with limited resources, suffers mainly from a lack of basic services and weakened infrastructure. Since 2015 there has been a waste crisis in which successive governments have not found a sustainable solution, but non-governmental organizations have been the main initiative to seek alternative solutions.
Despite initiatives by NGOs and environmental activists, only 10 percent of waste is recycled in Lebanon, according to official estimates.
In the areas of Mar Mikhael and Karantina, adjacent to the port of Beirut and severely affected by the explosion, volunteers are still busy daily cleaning streets and homes and sorting glass that can be reused.
Anthony Abdel Karim oversees the clean-up operations carried out by a crisis cell of volunteers, which called itself “from under the rubble.”
“We have mountains of garbage piled up in Beirut, which is a mixture of glass, filler and iron mixed with organic waste,” says the young man.
“This is totally unhealthy as we do not have adequate recycling operations in Lebanon,” he added.
Months ago, Abdul Karim launched an initiative to reuse glass under the title “An Empty Bottle”, driven by his vision of large quantities of empty bottles thrown into garbage containers after the long nights he helped organize, in a well-known country. for its hustle and bustle nightlife.
Abdel Karim says that what was sent to Tripoli “is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Abdel Karim seeks to find other ways to use the broken glass that Tripoli manufacturers cannot use, perhaps breaking it entirely to mix it with cement or any other material.
“We need a lot of time, we know that very well,” he added.
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