The Koura District in North Lebanon is home to 88,000 Lebanese residents and 15,000 refugees. The significant increase in population has strained the capacity of municipalities to provide basic services, especially during the ongoing economic crisis, including waste management, which has led to increased communal tensions over public health.

In response, USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) supported Bechmezzine and 17 surrounding Koura villages with equipment and training to design and implement a sustainable recyclables recovery project. To amplify the impact of this intervention, CSP is conducting awareness-raising campaigns across the 18 villages to promote sorting-at-source, reaching 13,346 people. As part of this initiative, CSP distributed 11 cages and 100 plastic bins to classes and offices at the Notre Dame University North Lebanon Campus (NDU-NLC) in the village of Barsa – one of the 18 benefiting villages.

On March 3, 2024, CSP launched a two-month sorting-at-source awareness campaign at NDU-NLC targeting around 500 students and administrative staff, while also training NDU-NLC workers on the safe collection of recyclables to be transferred to Bechmizzine’s material recovery facility. On March 14, CSP held an awareness raising session at NDU-NLC in the presence of 122 staff and students to introduce and guide them on the process of sorting from source.

“We gained a deeper understanding of recycling benefits and proper sorting techniques,” said Dia Touma, advertising and marketing student at NDU-NLC.