29 January 2020 – In the drive to create cleaner and more environmentally-friendly cities, the WHO country office in Lebanon, in collaboration with the Municipality of Tripoli, conducted a training of trainers workshop on 23 January 2020 on solid waste management with a focus on sorting and recycling practices. Around 45 volunteers, including representatives of nongovernmental organizations, municipality staff, students and local experts took part in the training, of whom 20 will be selected to undertake mass education activities on waste segregation and recycling through door-to-door visits, etc.

Awareness-raising material on waste segregation and recycling practices, developed by the WHO country office in cooperation with the municipality, will be disseminated to the community. WHO has also provided recycling bins/containers to the municipality for recycling of waste at Lebanese and Syrian households, restaurants, schools and in the streets. At the end of the project, a cleaning campaign will be undertaken with the support of the municipality and the participation of volunteers and the community.

Considering the priorities of the city of Tripoli and the improper management of solid waste in the city, a healthy city programme on community-based solid waste management is under implementation in 3 selected areas as a pilot project. This will then be replicated in other streets in the city. The overall objective of the project is to improve the solid waste management in the selected areas and to raise awareness of the importance of sorting waste and recycling practices in the context of the WHO healthy city programme.