In Libya, one person’s garbage is another person’s gain

Editor’s note: This story is part of a collaboration between Ensia and Egab exploring environmental efforts by communities facing potentially more urgent concerns such as war and poverty. Egab is a media startup that helps young local journalists from across the Middle East and Africa get published in regional and international media outlets, with a focus on solutions journalism. You can read the first two stories in the series here and here. 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. The city, home to the UNESCO World Heritage Archaeological Site Leptis Magna, had seen the flow of tourists dry up due to years of civil conflict that began in 2011 in the country. The combination of war — which destroyed infrastructure and brought an influx of internally displaced people — and the loss of tourism exacerbated plastic pollution, leaving Balhaj desperate for a solution. “People dumping their garbage everywhere is what I needed to stop,” he says. “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. And the problem is enormous. 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. Muhammad Masoud, head of human resources at GSC, says most of the plastic doesn’t get sorted from the trash, “partly because Libya doesn’t have regulations governing how to deal with plastic waste.” “I felt it was my calling to clean the beaches and the city. I pursued that.” —Mustafa Balhaj With the country torn between two feuding governments and experiencing a fragile cease fire, regulating the management of plastic waste is low on most politicians’ and decision-makers’ minds. The nation’s economy has shrunk, with GDP per capita in the country halving between 2010 and 2022 and unemployment rates hovering around 20%. People struggle to get proper health care and… Read More
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