USAID-funded BALADI CAP Grantee Al Shouf Cedar Society (ACS) celebrated the completion of its advocacy campaign “Less to Throw, More to Sow” which promotes the sorting of organic waste from the origin in three villages. Two closing ceremonies were held in two separate events in the villages of Batloun (Shouf) and Kfarmashoun (Jbeil). The campaign aimed at reducing organic waste through community awareness in Ehmej, Batloun and Kfarmashoun.
Another partner in project implementation was Al-Horouf Association, the latter of which was established with assistance from BALADI CAP in 2015. The project assisted residents of partner municipalities in starting composting units and initiating the use of doggy bags.
The project has already achieved an average of 27% reduction in the generated organic wastes in the targeted villages, with a significant reduction of 50% in Kfarmashoun. Charbel Matta, Kfarmashoun’s Mayor proudly explained that: “We have achieved 70% of our goal. Though our residences are not equipped to adopt composting methods, we still managed to implement composting at the village level”. The Municipality of Batloun has adopted composting as a strategic solution to reduce waste by establishing a workshop to fabricate wooden composting units that are being distributed to different residential and commercial units in the village. Hence, the municipality was able to reduce the solid waste by more than 25% in five months. It expects to further reduce it in the coming few months. The municipality is aiming to completely eliminate the collection of organic waste in the near future and generate more income from the sorting facility.
The project comes under a USAID grant, within the framework of BALADI CAP “Environment and Solid Waste Network”, one of three national advocacy networks that BALADI CAP is supporting. Network members are currently discussing ways to up-scale their successes in pilot projects to the national level, hence achieving a change in mindset at the local as well as national level.
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