Waste Recycling in Lebanon’s Refugee Camps

With funding from UNICEF, Anera’s Empowered Communities in Action program promotes home waste sorting, recycling and upcycling in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

Young volunteers in the camps of Beddawi, Nahr El Bared, Burj El Burajneh, Ein El Hilweh and Shatila are fanning out into their communities to clean streets and educate their neighbors about recycling.

In Ein El Hilweh and Shatila, Anera is running a pilot project where youth collect sorted waste from homes, recording the quantity, size, weight, and type of sorted materials. Youth then provide the family with a receipt and a cash value for the recyclables. At the end of each month, participating families collect the cash they earned.

“I’d never think for a second that we’d see this change among youth and community members toward sorting and recycling,” Aya El Hawarne, Anera’s water and sanitation project officer in Lebanon. “People appear to believe in the importance of doing this for the long-term.”