OK, so normally buying more stuff just means more trash and more waste. But what if you could spruce up your living space and help ease the garbage crisis that Lebanon is being buried under?
Green Glass Recycling Initiative Lebanon ( GGRIL ) is trying to revive the glass blowing artisanship in Lebanon by collecting colored glass bottles to either redesign them and send them back to wine and beer makers in the country or transform the bottles into completely new products to be sold to customers.
GGRIL addresses the lack of recycling of green and amber glass packaging in the country as the sole green glass manufacturer was bombed during the 2006 war, and has not been rebuilt since. Since then, local beer and wine makers have been forced to import their green glass bottles from abroad, and have been sending the bottles right to the dump, which has accumulated in the landfills over the years. In fact, 71 million colored bottles have been thrown away annually since the factory was destroyed.
To test whether people would respond to the initiative, the organization displaced glass recycling bins around Beirut. Fortunately, the results were great!
Once collected, the colored glass bottles will be sent to Sarafand in South Lebanon to be remelted and resold.
The products they make after melting the glass bottles are pretty cool! If you're looking for something unique to be used around the house, this is definitely where you should be looking.
The items are individually handblown by Lebanese artisans, and can be found on mysouk.com . Here's a few you cannot miss: