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Firas Al-Choufy wrote in Al-Akhbar:
Solutions to the waste crisis are closely linked to the agricultural sector. Organic waste, which constitutes the majority of Lebanese “remains”, compensates for the deficit in the import of agricultural fertilizers, removes toxins from Lebanese food and helps to restore the life of the inventory. Instead, the Lebanese are reluctant to bury their waste.
The economic collapse, the dollar crisis, or even the events of the Corona crisis did not reveal a new one, when the Lebanese food system was exposed, agricultural and industrial, and the Lebanese were on the verge of starvation. A country that imports 92% of its food and beverages has no food sovereignty. Therefore, he is deprived of the national will in the face of any siege or vibration, whatever the weapons he accumulated and the sacrifices he made.
That policy, specifically agriculture, is not innocent, or the product of a natural context. Rather, it is a mindset developed by the sect princes and their international presidents (to change them at every stage), in order to make Lebanon a consuming country, so its administration will ease boredom and groups linked to an imaginary economy. The greatest crime appears when the environmental, economic, social, political and sectarian aspects of the collapse are integrated into the waste crisis, which grows by thousands of tons per day. With every ton, sectarianism and federalist narratives grow.
Now the model exploded (decades behind schedule). Hunger runs with the garbage. The solutions, if they exist, as in the agricultural and industrial plans, the waste management plan and other issues, are solutions (apart from the imbalances they suffer) separate and fragmented from the solutions in other sectors, because those responsible for them ( In good faith?) Break the crisis in the original. This pattern of thinking contradicts the entire logic of sustainable development by integrating the solutions that the country needs to extract it from its miserable fate.
One of the most prominent crises in the current agricultural sector is the almost total absence of domestic production of fertilizers, the need for the market to import chemical or organic fertilizers, in light of the low exchange rate of the lira against the dollar, and obstacles facing production and export lines in producing countries due to the “crown”.
From 2011 to 2015, the average price per ton of imported organic fertilizer was approximately $ 271, according to the Customs Administration information base, less the cost of transportation to the regions and the profits of the merchants. During this period, Lebanon imported 64,715 tons of organic fertilizer, which is equivalent to around 100,000 tons of organic waste or animal feces, which means approximately $ 17.5 million, which left Lebanon irreversibly. Between 2016 and 2019, the import of organic fertilizers in Lebanon reached 55045 tons, at an average of $ 247 per ton, equivalent to approximately $ 13.6 million. The highest price per imported ton in 2019 was $ 272. Worse still, the import numbers of chemical fertilizers that poison food and the environment are terrifying, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in the last ten years alone!
On the other hand, and according to a simple calculation, the Lebanese dumps between 3.5 and 4 thousand tons of organic waste daily, from 5 to 7 thousand tons of waste (accurate calculation is difficult in the waste sector due to the absence of precise numbers), that is, more than 2000 tons of organic fertilizer! Thus, the Lebanese lose daily: 2000 x 272 = $ 544 thousand (without calculating the manufacturing cost, of course). In addition, the dumping of each ton of waste costs $ 150, according to the latest number marketed. Assuming 3,000 tons (after drying?) Are buried only from organic waste, the cost is: 3,000 x 150 = $ 450,000, added to $ 544,000, so the value of direct daily losses is approximately a million dollars due to the absence of organic fertilizer materials. This is, of course, apart from the environmental damage inflicted on the water, beaches and wildlife in the Lebanese Basin, and the diseases and health crises affecting Lebanese residents of the coast and major cities.
Beit Mery experience
The figures are more accurate at the compost and composting plant in the city of Beit Mery, north of Matn. That experience, which demonstrated that solutions are possible, provided they are integrated, began within a local plan to resolve the city’s waste crisis, in cooperation between the municipality and environmental engineer Ziad Abi Shaker.
Study numbers conducted at Beit Meryi confirm a four-week sample between February and March 2020, in four different parts of the city, where waste sources vary between commercial stores and homes, which every 2,400 kilograms of waste contain 1,880 kilos organic waste, that is. 78% of the total! These wastes that laboratory techniques can convert to fertilizer include: cooked and raw food waste, cardboard, sheets (from leftovers), health documents, baby diapers, and other plant waste.
To calculate the cost per ton of locally manufactured organic fertilizer, the research begins with the cost of the laboratory, which includes: a sorting center and a pressure center to reduce the volume of the separated materials, and a fermentation center within a integrated system.
The cost of a plant with the capacity to absorb 25 tons of waste is approximately $ 1 million for construction and equipment. The monthly operating cost is divided into: the salaries of 20 employees, the price of 5,000 liters of diesel and between 2,500 and $ 3,000 in machine maintenance. According to the results of the calculations of the Beit Meri experience, 25 tons of waste produce 18 tons of organic matter, they lose 45% of their weight after drying, to produce 10 tons per day of medium quality compost. And if we consider that six workers in the factory take over the fermentation and fertilization department at a predetermined cost of 6,000 million pounds (one million salary per employee) and $ 900 the cost of maintaining fermentation machines and 1,500 liters of diesel, then we collect the monthly cost (6 million + million and 350 thousand at the exchange rate of 1500 instead of Maintenance + two million and 250 thousand as the estimated price of fuel = 9 million and 600 thousand pounds). In other words, the estimated cost per ton is 37,000 Lebanese pounds, dividing 9 million and 600,000 pounds by 260 tons per month (at a production rate of 26 business days versus 10 tons per day). Of course, the fundamental cost of the fermentation unit must be added to the laboratory. But due to the volatility of the lira against the dollar, it is difficult to calculate now. According to the previous exchange rate, the cost per ton will not exceed 66 thousand liras. In the event that animal manure from chickens, horses or cows is added to the compost, just like the Beit Mery Factory to increase its quality, the total cost is still four times less than any imported ton, either organic fertilizer or also less than the cost of importing chemical fertilizers, and less than double the cost of Filling tons of waste!
The strange thing is that the crisis at the Beit Mery factory remains, with all the confusion the country is suffering from treating its waste, in the laboratory’s inability to secure 25 tons of waste per day … to treat it! Although the project includes, together with Beit Mery, small cities in its surroundings, such as Zandouqa and Qurtada.
Integrated solutions such as the Beit Mery factory allow not only to develop the agricultural sector at all levels and improve food quality and reduce toxins and direct environmental damage, but also in Lebanese mountain clothing that is affected by the erosion and which have now become rocky wheelbarrows, since it is possible, within the integrated project, to undertake The Ministry of the Environment, in cooperation with other ministries, covers vast areas of organic land with organic fertilizers, to bring them back to life , creating a new environmental cycle that stops the erosion of dust from the eastern and western series towards the Bekaa valley, which has a depth of about 300 meters.
This does not mean calling the Lebanese to continue to produce alarming rates of waste due to the pattern of consumption, since any solution depends on decisions at the level of power or government, but it also depends on the conviction of citizens to change their styles. of life and reduce the use of unnecessary materials, such as nylon bags in purchases. And many other imposed assets.
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