For Mustafa Balhaj, a 64-year-old retired teacher from Al-Khums, a coastal city in Libya, the plastic waste increasingly burying his hometown’s beaches was distressing. “Our beaches were covered in piles of garbage and construction debris.”Across Libya plastic is either buried in landfills, where it can potentially contaminate soil and water; incinerated, releasing toxic pollutants into the atmosphere; or simply piled up. Libya creates 350,000 metric tons (386,000 tons) of plastic waste each year, according to General Services Company (GSC), a government entity that oversees waste management. Balhaj had no answers for some of these pressing issues, but he saw in the increasing plastic waste a place where he could make a difference. Enabling the VulnerableOnly 37 miles (59 kilometers) southeast of Al-Khums, in Zliten, revenues from recycling plastic are supporting vulnerable people in another way.

Source: Libya Today March 14, 2024 19:23 UTC