The nationwide economic crisis in Lebanon has been limiting the capacity of local authorities to provide essential services, including solid waste management collection, treatment, and disposal services. In response, the USAID-funded Community Support Program (CSP) is supporting 51 Lebanese municipalities and local partners, including material recovery facilities, to recover recyclables and decrease the volume of solid waste through the provision of updated equipment and technical assistance.

To increase impact, avoid duplication, save on resources, and ensure the sustainability of these interventions, CSP established a Recyclables Waste Management Community of Practice (RWM CoP) in coordination with the USAID-funded program Diverting Waste by Encouraging Reuse and Recycling (DAWERR). The RWM CoP brings together municipalities and local organizations already benefitting from USAID-funded recyclables management interventions to share lessons learnt and best practices, develop efficient services to local communities, and discuss innovative recyclable waste management solutions to evolving challenges.

On September 14, 2023, CSP held an interactive workshop for the RWM CoP to enhance collaboration between municipal material recovery facilities and recyclable waste buyers, discuss sector challenges, and brainstorm mitigation measures and recommendations for improved material recovery facility sales. The workshop was attended by 15 participants including the mayors of Bechmezine and Amioun (North Lebanon), the mayors of Makse and Al Manara (Beqaa), facility managers, and recyclable buyers. CSP will follow with each MRF individually to track the workshop’s impact in terms of improved quality of recyclables as well as the total percentage of recyclables sold at each MRF. During the workshop, DAWERR also introduced a recently released application ‘RELIST’, which serves as an online marketplace for recyclables, enabling users to directly buy and sell recyclables at the best identified price, thus increasing competition among buyers and revenues of the material recovery facilities.

“It was great being able to coordinate and discuss with buyers the challenges we both face and the potential solutions to adopt in the future to improve the sustainability of material recovery facilities”, said Fawzi Kalash, Mayor of Bechmezzine.