Transforming Municipal Solid Waste into a sustainable material and energy in Lebanon (Saida)
Jameel W. Karaki Kellogg College University of Oxford
Candidate no. 711490 Word Count: 15,860 Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the Degree of Master of Science in Sustainable Urban Development Disclaimer: The thesis does not reflect the views of The University of Oxford and the researcher conducted this thesis for merely Academic purposes and it is not against any politician. 1
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Abstract The Lebanese waste sector is heavily dependent on landfilling and the unsustainable waste practices have led to a national waste crisis and other related environmental issues. This has sparked a growing interest to transform into sustainable waste management practices to cure these issues. The example of waste management in Saida has been viewed as one possible alternative in light of the challenges associated with waste management. Nevertheless, a lot of barriers have been faced on a national level. Consequently, this research aims to explore the barriers faced when transforming towards SWM, and the triggers behind such a transition. The assessment is experientially demonstrated with a qualitative case study based on Saida WTE facility, with an input from semi- structured interviews, literature review and observations. The Transition Theory based on the Multi-Level Perspective offered the analytical framework by which the triggers and barriers were outlined. To overcome the waste lock-in, the transformation in the waste sector was found to include mainly a political transition and other factors. The main barriers found arecorruption, lack of accountability and transparency, public pressures, sectarianism and “Mohasasa”. Moreover, other evident blockades exist such as financial constraints, institutional and legal barriers, overlapping responsibilities, and weak law enforcement.
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Acknowledgement To my wife Allisar, who was the main source of support during my journey while writing this thesis, and had to scarify our time during our short honeymoon. Without your motivation, I couldn’t have written this thesis. I would like also to thank my supervisor Dr. David Howard, Program Director and University Lecturer in Sustainable Urban Developmental Kellogg College and the Director of Research at the Department for Continuing Education for the general guidelines he provided me with. In addition, so much gratitude goes to Dr. Idalina Baptista for supporting me at the first stages of submitting my proposal and for her fruitful insights that helped to enlighten my thinking about research methodology and academia in general. Moreover, I would like to thank the Mayor of Saida who received me in his office despite his busy schedule. Special thanks also go for Ms. Nour Darazi from Sidon Environmental s.a.r.l who organized an interview for me with Mr. Sami Bidawi at the waste management treatment facility manager in Saida. It is also a duty to thank the Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan, despite the strict security measures he follows and to MP Osama Saad who was willing to receive me in his office during the clashes happening in Saida. Moreover, my deepest thanks goes for the writers of the different academic papers and reports I used in this thesis. Finally, I express my deep thanks to the staff of the MSUD program at the University of Oxford for their endless support during this course.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. 5 ................... ..………………………………………………………….…………… .................... 6 List of Acronyms: ......................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 8 1.1Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Research Focus ................................................................................................................................ 11 1.3 Significance of the study ................................................................................................................. 11 1.4 Limitations...................................................................................................................................... 12 1.5 Thesis Structure .............................................................................................................................. 14 Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................……15 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 15 2.2 Solid Waste and Municipal Solid Waste ......................................................................................... 16 2. 3 Sustainable Waste Management Practices ..................................................................................... 17 2.4Barriers of Sustainable Waste Management .................................................................................... 19 2.5Driving Forces of Sustainable Waste Management Practices ......................................................... 23 2.6 Transition ........................................................................................................................................ 24 2.7Insight to the Lebanese Waste Sector .............................................................................................. 26 2.8 Solid Waste Facts and Figures in Lebanon ..................................................................................... 27 2.9The Case Study of Saida.................................................................................................................. 29 Chapter 3 Research Methodology and Theoretical Framework .......................................... 32 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Case Study Methodology ............................................................................................................... 32 3.3 Research Design ............................................................................................................................. 33 3.4 Qualitative data............................................................................................................................... 34 3.5Theoretical framework .................................................................................................................... 35 3.5.1 The Transition theory .................................................................................................................. 35 3.5.2 The Multi – level perspective (MLP) .......................................................................................... 36 3.6Criticisms of the Transition Theory ................................................................................................. 38
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3.7 Analytical approach ........................................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 4 Results and Anlaysis……………………………………………………...…....46 4.1Driving Forces for Building the WTE facility and Waste Mountain Removal ............................... 42 41.1. Socio- Technical Landscape (Macro Level) ............................................................................... 43 41.14 Socio- Technical Regime (meso Level) ...................................................................................... 45 4.1.3Niche (Micro Level) ..................................................................................................................... 51 414Barriers of Transition towards Sutainble Waste Managemernt Practices .......………………52 4.2.1Socio-Technical Landscape (Macro) ............................................................................................ 52 4.2.2 Socio Technical Regime (Messo) ................................................................................................ 57 4.2.3 Niche (Micro)……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....64 Chapter 5 ...................................................................................................................................... 67 5.1 Key Findings ..........................................................................................................................69 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………..
Figure 1 - The Waste Management hierarchy………..……………………………………….. 9 Figure 2 –Saida Map............................................................................................................... 30 Figure 3- Methodology that was followed in sourcing and analyzing information for the dissertation………………………………...………………………………………………….39 Figure 4 - The Different Scale Levels of a Transition………………………...………..……..34 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………...95 Appendix 1- Photographs………………...………………………………………………..….96 Appendix 2- Example of an Informal Consent…………………..………….………….…..…99 Appendix 3 – Interview Questions (Arabic)…………………………………………………100 Appendix 4- Sample of Questions……………………………………………………..….…101 Appendix 4- Waste Management in the Arab World………………………………………..102 Appendix 5- Ethical Concerns……………………………………….………………..……..103 Appendix 6 Lebanese Electricity Sector……………………………………….….….…….. 105 Appendix 7 Interviewees Table…………………………………………………………..….106
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List of Acronyms: AD BML CDR Gol IWMS OMSAR
Anaerobic Digestion Beirut and Mountain Lebanon Council for Development and Reconstruction Government of Lebanon Integrated Waste Management System Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform
MENA
Middle East and North Africa
MoE MoF Mohasasa MSW SWM SSWM TPD UNDP
Ministry of Environment Ministry of Finance Power Sharing System Municipal Solid Waste Solid Waste Management Sustainable Solid Waste Management Ton per Day United Nations Development Program
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Chapter 1 1.1Introduction According to the World Urbanization Prospects Report, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. This is expected to grow to 63 % by 2050 (UN, 2014). This growth pressures cities in the Global South with many challenges such as extraordinary growth and energy shortage (Batool and Chuadhry 2009; Zhen-shan et al., 2009) as well as sustainable municipal solid waste (SMSW) management, which to date has been highly neglected as a factor of environmental management in developing countries, (Batool and Chuadhry 2009;Zhen-shan et al., 2009), although the issue of sustainability in waste management has been highly stressed by researchers. For example, Ezeah and Roberts (2012) describes Sustainable Municipal Solid Waste Management (SMSWM)as the practices adopted to handle the waste from collection including the treatment through to disposal in a way that guarantees continued safety of inhabitants as well as minimize environmental pressures. These practices include recycling, reusing solid waste material and converting waste to energy (Batool and Chuadhry 2009; Singh and Ramanathan, 2009).
This study focuses on the Mediterranean city of Saida, in the south region of Lebanon, which was able to transform its waste mountain into a WTE facility. This is interesting considering Lebanon is a country that heavily relies on landfilling where around53% of municipal solid waste is landfilled and 30% is disposed of in open dumps (Arif and Doumani, 2014).This issue has become increasingly crucial, as recently in July 2015 Lebanon was flooded with huge amounts of rubbish where municipalities had no choice but to dump waste in valleys, forests,
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and populated areas (Issa, 2015). This caused environmental crises which in turn pushed citizens to block roads, burn waste trashes, protest and urge the government to adopt SSWM practices especially in Beirut the Capital (Al.Jazeera, 2015). As a result, Lebanese political leaders were pressured and scrutinized to present alternative optionswhere they suggested possibility of waste management practices such as converting waste to an energy which is only adopted in Saida (Bidawi, Mayor, Minister, Interviews). However, this idea is not being implemented as the government was also investigating the option of opening new unhealthy landfills (Minister, Interview). An explanation to this can be attributed to political interests, financial and institutional challenges (AlKhatib 2015;Stel and El-Husseini2015)that will be discussed later.
From all the above, this waste crisis presents two-fold opportunities. Firstly, it demonstrates the importance of adopting SSWM practices in Lebanon. Secondly, it diversifies the energy sector in a country that suffers from power shutdowns. For example, these shutdowns can reach 13 hours per day (Dagher and Ruble, 2010). However challenges exist.Guerrero et al., (2013), explains the challenges as ‘Solid-waste management is a multidimensional issue that incorporates political, institutional, social, environmental, and economic aspects’. Later, Schwarz (2014) indicated that the problem of current waste management systems today is a complex process caused by different actors and linked to a society’s behavior, production patterns and policies(Schwarz, 2014).
Not only challenges as the above exist, but also the efforts to adopt SSWM practices, as Ezeah and Roberts (2012) described, are confronted with diverse interests of different actors (Corvellec et al., 2013).Such interests arise as a result of a system failure that can be defined 9
as a locked-in flaw, and dealing with such a failure requires a transition process (Rotmans and Loorbach, 2009). On this note, Unruh (2000) spoke about the concept of lock-in within the context of energy policy. He described how political, technological, and social factors build a techno-institutional complex that prevents the transition of carbon-saving technologies. Highlighting such an urban transition requires understanding the limitations of public institutions, the political, social and economic factors that provoked this change (Geels, 2010; Guerrero et al., 2013). The best to explain such concept was that of Rotmans and Loorbach (2009), where they state “combating system failures requires a restructuring of societal systems- that is a transition. A Transition is a radical, structural change of a societal (sub) system that is the result of a coevolution of economic, cultural, technological, ecological, and institutional developments at different scale levels (Geels,2011). Hence, for this transition to be successful, according to Schwarz (2014), cities should focus more on the societal challenges that SWM incorporates rather than just focusing on the technical approach during transitions.
A requirement for any transition to be accomplished, adequate policies should be in place. Schübeler (1996) indicates that achieving SSWM requires developing appropriate polices regarding political, social, financial, economic aspects of MSWM that goes beyond technical considerations. In this context, understanding how the city can transform from unsustainable waste management practices into sustainable ones relies heavily on two issues. Firstly, this requires understanding the political, economic and social barriers that affect the adoption of SWM technologies like WTE. Secondly, understanding the triggers of such transition to take place. By looking at the case of Saida, the above can be further explored to better understand
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the barriers and triggers, and understand how Saida managed to adopt and implement such approach.
1.2 Research Focus In order to understand the drivers of adopting SSWM practices in cities and the barriers to transition of such practices, the following three questions are being formalized: A. What are the current waste management practices in Lebanon? B. What are the drivers behind adopting SSWM practices in Lebanon? C. What are the barriers hindering such transition SSWM practices in Lebanon D.How Saida could remove its waste mountain and transformed from landfilling to WTE?
1.3Significance of the study According to the knowledge of the researcher, no previous study has investigated thedrivers of adopting SSWM practices and the barriers to transition of such practices in Saida. Moreover, this is a pioneer study in the whole Arab region. The importance of such study lies in understanding the barriers and drivers that affects a smooth adoption and transition to SSWM in Lebanon. Saida was able to transform its trash mountain into WTE facility and studying the factors that contributed to such transformation can help in providing solutions to decision makers and governments. The findings of this study will extend to benefit Lebanese citizens, considering the fact that a sustainable development of Waste Management could be a gradual progressive step to improve the environmental impact of the Waste Management systems in Lebanon that mostly depend on unhealthy landfilling. One way of doing that is resource recovery, which can be
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done through WTE, in country where waste piles are dominating most of its streets and around 51 % of MSW is land filled (Arif and Doumani, 2014). In addition, this study contributes to the modest literature available in this area as there are a few recent studies about waste management in Lebanon which goes back to the last decade. Out of these studies, only one study directly relates waste to energy, which is (Hammoud et. al, 2014). Moreover there is no study that explains the system failure, which can be defined as a locked-in flaw and how to deal with such a failure in the context of the theory. This thesis is a contribution to the literature, a starting point and an attempt to fill the research gap in the SSWM field and transition studies in Lebanon. Researchers, decision makers, governments, policy makers, and managers in the area can benefit from its findings.
1.4 Limitations The parameters that define the term ‘Sustainable development’ in itself present inherent limitations. According to Brundtland Report, Sustainable development is ‘the development that meets the needs of the current generations without compromising the needs of future ones’(Visser and Brundtland, 2009). However, several scholars have criticized some implications of Burndtland’s for being too ambiguous. Such as, not determining what the needs are, or the mechanisms to be adopted in order to achieve an environmentally sustainable society, or even if it has been used inconsistently with governance (Jordan, 2008, Solow, 1993). In addition, many scholars believe that the meaning of SD, which is a complement to sustainability, remains equally unclear (Grant, 2003). Despite its fuzziness as a term, for the purpose of the research it is assumed that sustainability will set standards for cities to manage their waste efficiently and mitigate its negative environmental impacts such as contamination of water, soil and atmosphere as well as public 12
health (Cohen, 2004; Sharholy et al., 2008). But why are SSWM practices important to the cities? Although sustainability calls to preserve resources for future generations, there is a lot of skepticism about how much we should keep for the future (Bromley 1998; Daly 1995;Kuhlman and Farrington 2010). However, since there is no single alternative that has emerged to challenge this definition, the discussion and debate continues (Jepson and Edwards 2010). Secondly, there is a limitation related to the transition process. Since transitions are multifaceted processes, researchers are expected to disagree on the best way they should be investigated (Geels, 2011). Thirdly, the Multi-Level-Perspective (MLP) Analysis have received many criticisms (Smith et al. 2005) in terms of being “too descriptive and structural, leaving room for greater analysis of agency and focus on the governance of socio-technical transitions, which in turn, calls for more attention to the role of power and politics. Further, it is criticized for being a bias towards bottom-up change models (Berkhout et al. 2004p.62). However, Geels (2011) responds to the first and second limitations by explaining that there is no single way to investigate socio-technical transitions since scholars differ in their ontological assumptions and methodologies. Chapter five discusses theoretical limitations thoroughly. Fourthly, another limitation is that the transition happened in Saida. Geels (2011) indicates that changes at the landscape destabilize the socio- technical regime, which creates a path for innovation for representing new technologies. Despite representing the WTE technology in Saida under the niche level based on the interviews conducted, political factors in the meso level were both the trigger for the innovation and the barriers at the landscape level at once. Regardless whether there was an innovation in the niche level, this transition would not have
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been done without politics. This might be attributed to the political- oriented opinions of the interviewees. Fifthly, the sample didn’t include all the political parties of Saidadue to time limitation, political, and security factors taking place during conducting the field research. As a result, different participants from sects and political leaders outside Saida were also interviewed in order to patch this deficiency. Finally, there was a shortage in qualitative and quantitative data related to the waste sector in Lebanon and Saida. This study had attempted to fill this gap by using data from the official report published by Sweepnet and prepaid by (Arif and Doumani, 2014)
1.5 Thesis Structure This sub-section provides guidance on the structure of the thesis. Chapter 1introduces and explains the main aim of this research. Chapter 2reviews theliterature onSWMpractices and provides background on demographics and an insight to the Lebanese Waste sectorand the waste management situation in Saida before and after operating the WTE facility. Chapter 3 describes the research methodology, whichincluded21 interviews with officials from the public and private sector as well as citizens. It also depicts the theoretical framework used to analyze the data. Chapter 4 discusses the analysis of the gathered data of the field research and analyses results in order to cover: (1) The factors that triggered the transition in Saida, (2) the barriers of adopting SSWM practices in Lebanon, (3) the correlation between findings and the theoretical finding and field research. The conclusion and final observations will be included in chapter 5.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1 Introduction
Due to urbanization, inhabitants will continue to produce waste, consume natural resources and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (Lehmann, 2011). Thus sustainability challenges are inevitable for cities (Brunner and Rechberger, 2015; Uyarra and Gee, 2013). Climate change is one of the significant challenges, which is mainly caused by cities, where water, food, energy and materials are consumed to a significant extent and therewith connected to greenhouse gas emissions. But on top of the climate change discussion, urgent challenges about the supply of resources, food, water and materials have come up in the last decades (Lehmann, 2011).This made adopting SSWM practices such as WTE Management an incremental step, to save our resources, face urbanization and improve the environmental impact of waste management systems that mainly rely on incineration and landfilling. One way of doing this, is to make efforts to contain or reuse waste through material recycling, energy production, composting, using a range of technologies, behaviors and polices or reuse (Kreith, 1994; Vergara, 2011). Such efforts to minimize environmental pressures and the need of energy for living have created a strong link between waste and energy (Habib et al., 2013).Using waste as a resource has a range of environmental benefits, including climate change mitigation (Vergara, 2011), overcome the limitations of space, demand on energy and unnecessary transport of waste (Hammoud, et al., 2014). This necessitates adopting environmental friendly practices that benefit cities in the future. However, to achieve this properly, it is vital to be aware of the triggers and impacts of urbanization, which mainly occur through: growing demands of resources e.g. water, energy, 15
materials, the loss of biodiversity and demographical changes. Further, continuing urbanization processes with an increasing number of rapidly expanding cities also is another factor, as well as material and energy productions methods of industry and agriculture (Lehmann, 2011). In addition to the above, cities will thus have to go through transitions, which will involve a change in structure (physical: infrastructure, supply systems; institutional: new regulations, policies, etc.), culture (sum of shared norms, values, images, etc.) and practices (routines, behavior, and ways of handling)( Van den Bosch, 2010).The following sections will discuss how cities can go through a transition.
2.2 Solid Waste and Municipal Solid Waste
Waste is defined in different ways. Engineers define Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as materials that are rejected by residential and commercial sources (Tchobanoglous and Kreith 2002), or as materials that has no longer a value to the owner (Menikpura et.al, 2012). Anthropologists propose that garbage is a reflection of someone’s life style and culture (Dunnell, 1999).Some of the dominant types of waste include; municipal waste, solid waste, hazardous waste and, electronic waste (Omari, 2015). Williams (2005) defines MSW as materials that are unwanted from residential and commercial usages. According to Fodor and Klemes (2012), municipal solid waste (MSW) is the waste produced by residential, commercial, institutional and public zone activities. When waste is landfilled it’s treated as valueless material (Assaad, 1996), however, todaywaste is no longer perceived as worthless
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garbage but rather as a resource (Zaman, 2012). An example of that can be seen in the case study selected. MSWM is the management of generation, collection, transfer and transport, treatment, recycling, resource recovery and disposal of MSW in urban areas to mitigate its impacts on public health, economics, and environment (Ramachandra and Shruthi, 2006). MSWdefinition of waste varies from a place to another, yet its characterization and source play significant role in choosing the right method to deal with it. Even if a budget does exist, developing waste management systems requires an efficient characterization and definition of municipal solid waste (Omari, 2015). However, waste is a dynamic concept that can be defined in different ways (Pongrácz, 2009).
2. 3 Sustainable Waste Management Practices
To understand SSWM practices, it is vital to shed the light on waste management hierarchy. According to the hierarchy in figure 1, prevention is the best method to treat waste as opposed to waste recovery that is used in Saida.
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Figure 1: The waste Management Hierarchy
Source: UNEP (2011). Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication
The hierarchy is considered as a broadly accepted guiding principle for prioritizing waste management practices to achieve minimum negative environmental and health impacts from wastes (Ramachandra and Shruthi, 2007;Perket, 2010).The waste hierarchy of the European Commission, (2008) states, “recycling materials is mostly preferable to energy recovery”. Conversely, it is not possible to recycle 100% of the recyclable material in municipal waste for economic, logistical and environmental reasons (Burnley et al., 2011). However, the hierarchy suggests that such a waste can be treated to recover the energy when recycling is not feasible (European Commission, 2008).In the context of this study, Saidacan be a great example of treating waste to recover the energy. Following from the above, resource recovery is the fourth preferred option and it is a main objective of a SWM system (Zaman, 2014). Resource recovery is prior to incineration and landfilling since this method can achieve energy recovery from waste residues through certain 18
facilities that produce energy (Ramachandra and Shruthi, 2007). The last preferred step is land filling or disposal since it is not possible to recycle 100% of the recyclable material in municipal waste for economic, logistical and environmental reasons (Burnley et al., 2011). However, the hierarchy suggests that such a waste can be treated to recover the energy when recycling is not feasible (European Commission, 2008)1. This has the advantage of reducing landfills gas emissions and transform landfills into biogas production and electricity generators (Zuberi and Ali, 2015). In the Lebanese context, this can be evident in the case of Saida, where the city transformed its mountain of garbage into a seaside park and producing electricity to the neighboring streets.
2.4Barriers of Sustainable Waste Management There are many barriers that prevent SSWM practices from being adopted as final treatment for MSW (Agamuthu et al., 2009).Certainly the challenges facing waste management are plenty. Approximately, up to 5% of residents in developed countries lack collection services in comparison to 50 % in low-income countries (Parizeau et al., 2006; Guerrero et al., 2013).Lebanon is no exception. Regardless of financial barriers (Marshall and Farahbakhsh, 2013), there is also technical hinders such as lack of human capital (Troschinetz and Mihelcic, 2009). Waste management is remarkably influenced by a variety of factors including: political, legal, socio-cultural, environmental, economic factors as well as available resources (Marshall and Farahbakhsh, 2013). The correlations among these factors are generally complex in waste management systems (Abu Qdais, 2007) and thus all of these factors should be addressed in
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c.europa.eu, (2015). Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (Waste Framework Directive) - Environment - European Commission. [online] Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/framework [Accessed 4 Jun. 2015]. 19
waste management policies or choosing a waste system (Fourie, 2006). The complexity of such barriers is at various levels:
At the political level, barriers can exist in the relationship between local and central governments, citizen participation, policymaking, political competitions, election campaigns which in turn affect the character of management, governance and the type of MSWM (Schübeler,1996; Mohamad, 2012).
At the technological level, choices are driven by, political motives, where the choice is mainly done by foreign donor countries under ‘tied aid’ structures, usually favoring capital-intensive equipment that is not the most suitable for waste management in many developing countries(Klundert, 1999). Furthermore, political intervention by political parties who assign mayors and head of municipalities not only potentially hinder adopting sustainable waste practices but also adversely affect waste collections like the case of Kenya (Henry et.al,2006).
At the economical level, lack of financial assistance from the government and investment for waste management, high establishment cost for some WTE technologies in comparison to present conventional technologies (Agamuthu et al., 2009;Kinab and Elkhoury, 2012) can be largely due to political and economic instability within the country (Ramos et., 2012). In addition, High capital investment and high operating costs are key barriers (Boemi et al. 2010;Chirico, 2011). A city’s ability to locally fund, manage operations and pay these costs is jeopardized. Some
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cities in low-income countries (e.g. Bamako, Mali) have delayed construction of a sustainable landfill relatively due to the unresolved problem of financing for transport and operation (Keita et al., 2010). Other cases include the Jam Chakro landfill in Karachi (Rouse, 2006)
At the community level,some WTE technologies like incineration has been mainly controversial due to concerns about public health and the environment by the general public (Rootes, 2009). This is attributed to the conflict between opponents and proponents or what is described as the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome. It refers to the negative attitude of reactions received from people against the establishing of activities in their neighborhood or communities while appreciating its positive impact for the society as a whole (Terwel, et al., 2013). Conflicts sometimes facilitate constructive discussion and debate concerning the choice between waste management solutions (Nissim et al., 2005). At the same time, long-standing conflict can destabilize waste treatment, resulting in environmental degradation and health risks (Davies, 2002).This is a common reaction in developing countries, as people tend to be less educated and less trusting of their governments. For instance in Brazil citizens opposed WTE technology for many reasons: ignorance, indifference, and uncertainty (Mercedes 1999).Similarly, Wolsink (2000) finds the attitude of people and resistance motivated by calculated personal costs and benefit.
At the legal and institutional level, law enforcement comes as another factor. The enforcement of waste management related laws could reduce the efficiency of a waste 21
system. These laws can vary from governing MSW disposal, revenue collection and project implementation and management (Henry et.al, 2006).In the Lebanese context, there are a lot of institutional hinders such inapplicable laws that were issued since19982. Another hindrance is the formation of new governments, where the new one doesn’t implement old decrees. For example, WTE technologies were agreed by the government as a disposal method in the whole country in 2012, but could not yet be implemented due to governmental changes (Arif and Doumani, 2014).
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Council of Ministers decisions number 27 dated 11/07/2002, number 16 dated 14/08/2003, number 1 dated 13/11/2003, number 22 dated 28/03/2004, and number 12 dated 8/04/2004, the CDR plan of 2005, the household SWM Plan proposed by CDR and the MOE, pursuant to Decision No.1 dated 28/6/2006, the strategy developed by the MOE in 2010, The 2010 SWM Plan, which was initiated pursuant to the COM Decision No. 1 of 3/2010, and endorsed by the COM on September 1, 2010.
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2.5Driving Forces of Sustainable Waste Management Practices According to Marshall and Farahbakhsh (2013), the progress of SWM projects is triggered by five major factors, public health, environment, resource scarcity, waste value, climate change, and public awareness. Climate change has acted as an environmental driver to adopt SWM practices since the early 1990s, causing a shift away from landfilling biodegradable waste, which is a major source of gas emissions, and led to a focus on energy recovery from waste (Un-Habitat,2010). Another driver was the public concern and awareness, which acted as SWM drivers in highincome countries. Poor practices in the past, such as burning dumps and polluting waste facilities, have left the public skeptical about the adoption of new SWM strategies (Wilson, 2007). While the public may appreciate the need for SWM facilities, the common NIMBY, attitude means they would rather have them located elsewhere (Schübeler, 1996). Unsustainable behavior also curbs the movement towards better SWM. Therefore, strategies that in the waste hierarchy require behavioral change (Wilson, 2007), whichJackson (2005) believes is becoming the ‘holy grail’ of any sustainable development strategy. Although the above factors and barriers are crucial in understanding the adoption of SSWM practices, transition remains the core of this study.
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2.6 Transition Transitioning to SSWM practices is a complex task (Kemp 2011, Schwarz, 2014). It is not only complex because of a physical infrastructure change, but also because of the societal challenges (Schwarz, 2014). This challenge relies on the one hand in established user practices and behavior-patterns that are adapted to the current system, and on the other hand in the common assumption that waste is a misused resource, which is unavoidable and has no value (Hodson and Marvin, 2010). Such a change will take a time-span of 25 years and this can be demonstrated by railway-system in the USA from the water-channel system or the change from horse-carriages to engine-driven vehicles (Rotmans and Loorbach, 2009, Ohlenschlager, 2010). In both cases it was mostly the societal challenge like policies along with the willingness of the people, which hindered and pro-longed a change for long time. Convincing power was needed to move this change forward. So the challenge in transitions lies in the development of a new thinking which influences common practices and structures (Kemp, 2010). Citizens often have images and visions in mind how a desirable future should look like, but the real challenge lies in implementing actions and to achieve short-term goals to make this visions become reality (Schwarz, 2014). Transitions are transformation processes in which existing structures, institutions, culture and practices are broken down and new ones are established. Societal transitions are defined as processes of change that structurally change the culture, structure and practices of a societal system (Kemp, 2011). As a phenomenon, transitions have been studied by numerous disciplines such as in ecology, psychology, technology studies, economics and demography (Gersick, 1991).Rotmans and Loorbach (2009) first introduced the concept of transition to the field of sustainable development. Their basic proposition is that through the understanding of
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structural societal change processes (like transitions), it is possible to frame governance principles, methods and tools to deal with these processes (i.e. transition management). Their work laid the foundation for the new field of ‘transition studies’ (Rotmans et al., 2004).
In this new research field transition processes are studied from many angels: socio-technical systems (Geels, 2011;Kemp, 2011), innovation systems (Smits and Kuhlmann 2004) and complex adaptive systems (Loorbach 2010). It’s beyond the scope of this research to look at factors other than the socio technical factors, therefore in the case of this study, which is the transition of a city towards SSWM practices, there is a socio-technical change which will necessitate changes in the structure, culture and practices of how waste is managed in a city and in understanding the structural (regime) barriers to development towards the desired goal. These barriers are “regulatory, institutional, economic, technological, physical infrastructure or cultural aspects (Loorbach, 2007).
In summary, with transition, SSWM is a multidimensional issue that involves many factors. Improving SWM in developing countries requires efforts to raise public awareness, increase funding, build expertise, and invest in infrastructure. To make progress communities will need to embrace new systems for SSWM that are participatory, contextually integrated, complex, and adaptive. The following section provides insights on the Lebanese waste sector; a brief about how it is managed and it also covers the available published facts and figures.
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2.7Insight to the Lebanese Waste Sector Lebanon is a Republic of 10,452 km (MOF, 2013) with a population over 5.2 million(Hammoudet et al., 2014). Reforming the waste sector was a top priority for the Lebanese government (Arif and Doumani, 2014). The waste generated is approximately 7100 TPD (2.6 million ton annually) with a yearly growth rate of 1.65% and overall 100% collection coverage (Arif and Doumani, 2014). It is expected that the quantities of the municipal waste will reach 3 million tons in 2020 due to the increase of population (Arif and Doumani, 2014).This rapid increase in waste production will require Lebanon to follow a new thinking or a transition path to manage its waste in a sustainable way.
Currently, the waste sector in Lebanon is facing a lot of challenges. The private sector is fully involved in the collection transport and removal of MSW especially in BML(Arif and Doumani, 2014).Before many Lebanese cities were flooded with waste in 2015(Issa, 2015), the collection services rate has reached 98-100% in urban areas and 90-95% in rural areas, making Lebanon the first in waste collection among the MENA countries in terms of waste collection(Arif and Doumani, 2014). However, this is not the case right now, where the trash is covering most of Lebanon since Sukleen halted garbage collection in city in September 2015, demanding the government to find a new dumping site after the Karantina landfill reached capacity (Daily Star, 2015).This is a result of a political lock-in due to a conflict of interests among political parties.
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In terms of spending, GOL spent a total of US$ 647 million over the 1998-2008 periods (Arif and Doumani,2014) however, Lebanon pays some of the world's highest per-ton waste collection rates (Saad, ,Minister, Bidawi, Interviews).Recently, a waste crisis erupted after the closure of Naameh landfill in July 17 2015, which was serving Beirut and its surroundings. When it was closed, the government failed to identify sites for new landfills or alternative arrangements (Hussein, 2015).After that, the cabinet rejected a list of tenders for waste management contracts across Lebanon and referred the problem to a ministerial committee due to high prices (PCM, 2015).These prices are described as higher than what is paid for collecting and managing the waste of New York(Saad, Zaid, Interviews). Despite of the high costs of managing waste in Lebanon, and the involvement of the private sector the country is becoming a stinking dump (Nash, 2015).
2.8 Solid Waste Facts and Figuresin Lebanon An estimated 2.04 million tons of MSW was generated in Lebanon in 2013. Organic waste exceeded 50 %; paper, cardboards and plastics represented a significant proportion, along with glass and metal (Arif and Doumani, 2014). High moisture content is also dominant in wastes, often exceeding 60%.This domination of organic waste can be attributed to excessive consumption patterns or lack of sorting practices. MSW generation per capita fluctuates between 0.85 Kg/p/d in rural areas to around 0.95 to 1.2 Kg/p/d in urban areas” (Arif and Doumani, 2014). Within the population growth, and the increase in waste production, these figures indicate that waste will be a major threat to the environment and the public health in Lebanon.
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Municipal waste collection coverage is mostly high, reaching or exceeding 99% of the average between urban and rural areas(Arif and Doumani, 2014). However, according to Saad’s (interview) most of the municipalities throw their waste in open lands or valleys. Despite such improvements, there has been very slow progress on the institutional, legal and financial aspects.
Around 51 % of MSW is landfilled in sites that serve Greater Beirut and the Central Bekaa valley. Such a practice indicates that there is negligence of sorting or utilizing the waste to into materials or energy. Currently, about 11% of waste is composted and around 8 % is recycled. Although sorting facilities are available to serve the Greater Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Zahle hand other regions, collection of recyclable materials is mostly carried out by scavengers or (Zableen) operating at various waste collection sites in the urban areas (Arif and Doumani, 2014). This is a signal that the government doesn’t treat waste as a valuable material but as merely trash.
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2.9The Case Study of Saida
Saida or Sidon is the third-largest Lebanese city and also named as the capital of the south. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast (Saida Municipality Website)3. The dumpsite was located in the southern part of Saida, at the sea front, only 200 meters from nearby residences and commercial units (UNDP, 2013). It contained around 2 million cubic meters of waste, was known to cave in during winter, spilling garbage into the sea and onto the city’s coastal areas (UNDP, 2013).
Figure 2: Map of Saida, Source: Saida Municipality
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Saida.gov.lb, (2015).موقعبلديّةصيدا. [online] Available at: http://www.saida.gov.lb/ [Accessed 20Jul. 2015]. 29
The city urban areas were closely surrounding the landfill site at a distance of several hundred meters (UNDP, 2013). Managed by the Municipality of Saida, the dumpsite used to receive about 300 tons of solid waste per day from 15 municipalities (or 250,000 people). Originally established in 1982 to receive rubble and demolition waste from destroyed buildings, the dumpsite has since received all kinds of waste, an estimated 1,500,000m3 so far (60 percent rubble and 40 percent municipal waste) (UNDP, 2013, Rima, Interview). The waste mountain stretched 55 meters high from the surrounding terrain, and covered an area of 60,000m²; it has an enduring eyesore and health threat to local residents and tourists (UNDP, 2013, Henino, interview). The environmental repercussions were severe; occupational hazards related to incoming health care waste, recurring waste slides into the Sea, and stench have invited countless complaints from local fishermen and residents, in addition to official complaints from the neighboring island of Cyprus (UNDP, 2013). The Dumpsite had no basal lining barrier and no leachate collection system (UNDP, 2013, Saad, Interview).
Later, the dumpsite that had no basal lining wall and no leachate collection system; was converted into a treatment plant using methane gas released from the waste to generate electricity for powering up the facility and light up to light the streets of the surrounding neighborhoods (Zaatari, 2013). The IBC, a private company, owns the solid waste treatment facility in Saida, which serves 16 municipalities of Saida- Zahrani area. TheWTE planet receives waste and recycles 100% of it, while reused and converted approaching 0% landfill (Saadeh andMikhael, 2015, Bidawai, Interview). The facility has a capacity of 450-500 tons of waste daily. Workers sort and separate it in designated areas. Organic waste is then treated by anaerobic digesters where 50-60% of the organic waste is converted to biogas containing 31
methane and carbon dioxide, which is converted into energy and the remaining is used as fertilizer (SaadehandMikhael, 2015).
On the 8th of September 2015, the government called to send 250 tons of waste daily to IBC to reduce the amount of waste spread on its roadsides, after the Lebanese government moved the responsibility to municipalities to manage their waste in period not to exceed 18 months. The reason behind that is attributed to the fact that Lebanon should adhere to the waste management hierarchy, which is explained above. In addition the government called to produce energy from the gas emitted in Naamehlandfill (Saadeh and Mikhael, 2015).
The case study of Saida was chosen to understand how waste is managed in Lebanon and how the waste treatment center or (WTE center) emerged as a solution. It is the first treatment facility in Lebanon that uses WTE in treating waste. This case will give an insight about actions, barriers, motivations and driving forces of such a transition. In reference to (Yin, 2013) a case study is a research method aimed at examining in-depth a subject of study. Therefore the employment of a case study method will assist the researcher in developing and building a good understanding to give an example of how a city can transform from unsustainable waste management practices into producing energy from waste.
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Chapter 3 Research Methodology and Theoretical Framework This chapter elaborates on the methodological framework that has been developed to answer the research question. It discusses in depth the theoretical basis for the method selection, participants, data gathered.
3.1 Introduction Theories are used in this research, as a methodological tool, to build up the analysis framework in order to answer the research questions. Two major theories are utilized in the case study, Multi-Level-Perspective (MLP) Analysis and Transition Theory. The (MLP) is useful middle range framework for analyzing the current waste management system in terms of identifying obstacles, limitations, opportunities and challenges (Geels, 2011).As for the transition theory, it is useful in analyzing how the transitions towards SSWM can become effective and goal-oriented. It identifies the parties that should be involved and the steps that should be taken in order to scale up initiatives so that they can be integrated into common practices. This will be researched through this case study of Saida, to understand transition dynamics, niche-development, socio-technical regime, and socio-technical landscape as the essential elements of Transition.
3.2 Case Study Methodology The advantages of employing a case study method of research lie in its ability to examine the data within the context of its use (Yin, 1984). Moreover, it allows for both qualitative and 32
quantitative analysis of the data (Stake, 1995), in addition to its ability to explore the data in more depth than many other research methods do (Stake, 1995). On the other hand, a case study has a number of limitations. Yin(1984) states these limitations as, 1) the lack of accurateness in case studies, 2) that case studies are often very focused and provide a little basis scientific generalization, 3) case studies are exhaustive, long and difficult to conduct.
3.3 Research Design This research included four stages as illustrated in figure 2 below. The first stage involved conducting a literature review on the SWM practices, core terminologies, driving forces for transition and the barriers of transitioning towards SWM practices in developing and developed countries. This step was essential to discover the research gap in previous literature (Gillham, 2010). Theliterature varied from academic publications, published works, as well as legal and public records to various governmental and non-governmental departments.
The second stage involved mainly identifying potential participants preparing the questioning criteria and preparing the semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews were selected for this study as it has the advantages of preparing the questions ahead of time, it is detailed, and it is reliable qualitative data (see appendix 4). Moreover, the nature of these interviews leave questions open ended, allowing the interviewees to expand on their answers, for which it can lead to more detailed questions and answers (Cohen and Crabtree, 2006).These questions were developed in context with the transition theory and related literature. However, the limitations of structured interviews include bias answers and at times high costs (e.g. if conducted over the telephone) (Crabtree, 2006).
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The data collection from the interviews was in stage three and it included transcription of interviews (see appendix 8). Word was used as the main software tool, however coding was done manually through highlighting. The next chapter discusses results and analysis.
Phase 1
• Litreture review : Reviewing the literature, public records and previous researsh
• Qualtiative Resesearsh: Identifying potential participants, & preparing questions Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
within the context of theoratical framework
•Semi- Structrued interviews transcription, manual coding & flitering themes based on barrieres and triggers within the theroatical framework
•Data Analysis: comparing with litreature, write up, results and conclusions
Figure 3 - Methodology that was followed in sourcing and analyzing information for the dissertation
3.4 Qualitative data Qualitative methods were used for data collection, achieved byinterviewing21participants.The sampling method allowed relevant data to be captured within the scope of the research question. Participants were selected based on their relevance for the topic, their political orientation, geographic location, and sect.
Snowball sampling was used to an extent as contacts were established based on referrals from some interviewees. A combination of face-to-face and telephone interviews were employed.
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The direct interviews took place at the offices of the interviewees, thereby maintaining the natural elements of the research (Bryman, 2008). The interviews ranged from 15 to 70 minutes in length. Most of the interviews were recorded by digital recordings. All interviews were transcribed to an electronic format within twenty-four hours of the discussions. The information gathered covered the role of political parties in waste management, corruption, barriers, driving forces for the transition in the city, hidden secrets of the waste sector in Lebanon and how waste is managed. The participants included an MP, Minister, Engineers, managers, mayor, and citizens. The variation in participants allows for different perspectives and enrichment of research (Maxwell, 2004). Such a research approach provided valuable insight on the questions of ‘what is’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ (Spencer et al., 2012) behind establishing the WTE facility in Saida, and the challenges and barriers for SWM practices.
3.5Theoretical framework The theoretical framework below, presents the two theories; the transition theory and the MLP theory, the criticisms and response in the literature. The Transition Theory based on the (MLP) provided the analytical framework and through it the key driving forces and barriers of this transition process were determined.
3.5.1 The Transition Theory The Transition theory in context of societal transformation is defined by the continuous and steady evolution of complex sub systems of its framework. This is achieved by a dynamic
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interplay between multiple spheres of society including; economic, cultural, institutional, environmental and technological over a time frame of generations (Rotmans, 2005). In order to sustain a systematic shift of social equilibrium, the advancement of these domains must act as both catalyst and end point of transformative change (Kemp, 2010). The transformative change in which one system replaces another is led by system innovation – the axis of which is characterized by indefinite time lines, high levels of uncertainty and practical complexity when dealing with the crossover of multiple disciplines. Such features make transition theory useful for showcasing how the interaction net integration of SWM practices in a Lebanese waste sector.
3.5.2 The Multi – level perspective (MLP)
The (MLP) establishes the principle that societal transition occurs when trends, developments and events interact and sustain each other functionally at micro, meso and macro levels. This scale also parallels the classification system outlined by Rip and Kemp (1998), highlighting the interaction between the socio-technical domain, regime and niche as vital elements to catalyzing transition. The ascension from micro to macro levels of this conceptualization sees a decreased interaction among actors working practices and structural components and a competing accumulation of system resources and elements. As the internal processes at each phase and strata align, elements emerge into the pre-established markets, which counter existing structures – causing a foundational transition of the existing system (Rotmans and Loorbach, 2009). It is the dynamic relationship between actors, structures and working practices at a functional level, which provide the gateway and ensure the sustainability of transformational processes (Rotmans 2005). 36
According to Kemp (2011),” the socio-technical landscape refers to the material and immaterial elements at the macro level: infrastructure, political, cultural and partnerships, social values, globalization and paradigms, the macro economy, demography and the natural environment”. Within this landscape there is sociotechnical regimes and special niches (Kemp, 2010). At the socio-technical regime (meso) level there are three interrelated dimensions or subregimes (Geels, 2011, Gardiner, 2012): a socio-technical system, a network of human actors and social groups and a set of formal, cognitive and normative rules. The dominant practices, beliefs, rules and interests are used as the ground for steering the activity of actor groups, who work towards resisting changes to the configuration of the status quo (Rotmans et al., 2001; Rotmans, 2005). This resistance might be attributed to be the outcome of a lock-in situation arising out of increasing path dependence (Geels, 2011, Gardiner, 2012). Such lock- in does not happen only in technology but also in cultural, political and market dimensions (Geels, 2011).
At the niche level, (micro) individuals or technologies practice more flexibility to divert from the norm (Geels, 2011). Niches are ‘protected spaces’, that can either be subsidized demonstration projects, or small market niches, where emerging innovations can take place and be supported by users with special demands and the willingness to support these innovations (Raven et al., 2010). Niche actors (such as entrepreneurs, start-ups, spinoffs) focus their business on radical innovations that differ from existing regimes (Kemp, 2010). They hope that they could somehow achieve a break-through into the regime level and that their novelties could thus replace existing systems or technologies. That is not an easy task as the
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regime-level can be very stable and some systems are even characterized by lock-in mechanisms (Rotmans et al., 2001).
Figure 4: The Different Scale Levels of a Transition Source: Rotmans, 2005
3.6Criticisms of the Transition Theory
Transition theory has fallen under criticism due to the rigidity of its framework and failure to encompass wider contextual elements, which may also act as a catalyst for change. The understanding of imperial cases of transition with theoretical components of MLP presents a disconnection in their comprising elements previously discussed (Geels, 2011, Kemp, 2010) . Specifically, this gap in analysis identifies indiscrete parameters of the socio-technical regime and its influences on other interacting niches. The inability to define these parameters and resulting influences casts doubt on the ability to accurately identify and assess the case of a 38
true transition (Berkhout Smith &Stirling, 2004). As a counter measure, it should be within the analyst’s ability to distinguish a contextually relevant scale based on impact on cultural, behavioral and policy meaning in order to accurately apply the MLP analysis (Geels and Schot, 2007). Smith et al., (2005) and Jacob (2007) criticize the notion of transitions occurring through niche development processes, pointing to other pathways and the need for regime-changing policies to complement innovation support schemes. On his part, Shove and Walker (2007) criticize of the “transition through modernization” and doubt the ability of societies to transform themselves. The rigidity of the transition theory framework has also severely underplayed the role of agency and wider contextual elements in the institutional structure and process. The transition model presents a functional and rational process but presents problematic limitations with minimal accountability for vast contextual differences and contingencies (Smith, et. al., 2005). Geels and Schot (2007) contest that the three levels of structures simply vary the impact of actors on the interpretation, replication, modification and reconstruction of policies – validating their role and influence in process.
It is also stipulated that emphasis on the technological niche in mapping transition has also over represented its power in the process. Geels and Schot (2007) propose that greater focus needs to be paid to continual processes at the landscape and regime strata in order to eliminate any obvious niche biases. The main transitional levels assumed were (i) transformational (ii) technological substitution (iii) reconfiguration (iv) de-alignment and re-alignment as the environment for various dynamic interactions which foster transitions.
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3.7 Analytical approach
The use of transition theory as an analytical and theoretical framework suits this research as it precisely draws the diversity of changes and interactive evolution of social, political, institutional and technological factors involved in integrating a SWMfacility in the city of Saida. According to Rotmans and Loorbach (2009), the process of social learning and acceleration, which are major elements of the transition process, can be stirred by monitoring the rate of progress (along with the driving forces), the barriers, and the points to be improved. As mentioned in the section 5.2, The MLP envisages these dynamics and from multiple hierarchical levels, which are useful as the transformations in the waste sector due to their complex, uncertain nature and variety of influences. These multi-faceted and interconnected features are similar to the characteristics of sustainability challenges and so equally require integrated solutions across scales and domains (Kates et al., 2001), effectively represented by MLP. This analysis is classified as a target oriented approach as the actors work towards achieving a pre-determined goal of incorporating SSWM practices in Lebanon. Within the proceeding data analysis the landscape level would include developments stemming from an international scale like the fund from the KSA. The regime level would involve the decisions, rules and actions originating from actors like the government and organizations or networks at and beyond the national scale. The niche level makes reference to specific factors at the national and local scale in the city of Saida, like the movement of citizens to stop the health risks and receiving funds from and to the WTE technology.
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Chapter 4 Results and Analysis This chapter presents the results and analysis for the study.
4.1Driving Forces for Building the WTE facility and Waste Mountain Removal The problem of waste management is related to system failures. Such a system failure can is defined as a locked-in flaw and dealing with such a failure requires transition (Rotmans and Loorbach, 2009)4.This lock-in cannot only be solved by technology trajectories, but also in political, cultural, scientific, industrial and market dimensions (Geels, 2011). The dilemma of lock- in can be solved according to Foxon (2002) by innovation which is a major factor of transition. In a report published by Saadeh and Mikhael (2015)from the research department of BLOM Bank, the WTE plant, in which 100% of the municipal waste received is recycled, re-used and converted, approaching 0% landfill was built and operated by IBC -a privately owned company. Therefore, in context of this study the IBC Company can be considered as the innovator. According to
Marshall and Farahbakhsh (2013), the progress of SWM projects is triggered by six major factors, political, public health, the environment, resource scarcity the waste value, climate change, and public awareness.
To this end, based onthe MLP analytical framework results from the interviews relating to thedriving forces behind the tarnation towards SSWMin Saida, across the following levelssocio- technical landscape (macro), socio- technical regime (meso) and the niche (mirco) reveal the main drivers to beinternationaltreaties, political will, institutional and regulatory framework, health risks, and financial support.
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4.1.1Socio- Technical Landscape (Macro Level) The socio-technical landscape (macro) level is an exterior context within which the deep structural trends are rooted (Geels, 2011). These include economic growth, globalization, broad political coalitions, cultural values, and environmental problems (Geels, 2011; Kemp, 2011). Changes at this level lie outside the immediate scope of control of niche and regime actors (Geels and Schot, 2007); however, these changes exercise pressure at the mesolevel.The analysis of the interviews’ results is as follows:
A. International treaties An analysis of the interviews shows that the main external forces that triggered transition in Lebanon were international treaties signed by Lebanon and complaints of frequent waste slides into the Mediterranean Sea from the neighboring Island of Cyprus. Later on, after cooperation between MOE and UNDP, the city decided to embark a journey in removing the waste mountain. This was a trigger for the government to think about SWM practices, as confirmed by (Raad, Interview).However, Aboud, places less importance on international treaties as a trigger for such a transition. He elaborated: “The catalysts of this change is internal, how far would these complaints affect Lebanon? I think they are just statements published in the media”.
B. Finance Lebanon suffers from budget constraints in the waste management sector and in financing waste management infrastructure through international loans and grants (Arif and Doumani,
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2014)5. This is attributed to the fact that in developing countries, SWM is frequently lacking funds due to the inadequate resources from municipal revenues and the mismanagement of funds (Coffey and Coad, 2010) In this case, how did Saidafinance such a project? When asked about how the city could secure the financial resources for the project, all participants revealed that a partnership between the private sector and a fund from KSA were the main source of money. The mayor of Saida explained, “Securing the finance was the catalyst for this transition led by the private sector and after the city secured the fund, we could proceed the project”.Speaking about how the project had started Bidawirevealed “the project happened by coincidence when a man conducted a feasibility study and the city had no choice but to believe him. Then 4 Saudibusinessmen (entrepreneurs) came and offered to invest in the project. After that, they realized later on that they will lose more if they keep going in the project. The municipality due to its limited financial resources, asked investors to continue working on the project till they finish it and from then the municipality would renegotiate new terms with these investors”(Bidawi, Interview). In contrast to the statement MP Saad was skeptical about the source of the funds. He Said, “We don’t know who are these businessmen, and how many are involved, we tried to check with the authorities, yet we had no answer”. (Saad, Interview). PPP as a strategy of public service management reform was acknowledged in the 1990s as crucial to sustainable development initiatives especially in the developing countries (World Development Report 1993). The PPP in the Lebanese waste sector led to an increase in the 5
An international grant that was approximately at $25 million; $20 million of which has been committed by the GOL from the national budget and $5million will be topped up from the grant received from the Walid Bin Talal Foundation.( UNDP,2014).
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waste collection services in the country (AbdelMalak et al., 2002). As a result, it is no surprise that the private sector would participate in such a project. Summary:The exogenous triggers at the Macro level such as the funds by the Saudi Investors and the complaints by the neighboring countries were partially outside the control of the regime and niche actors.
4.1.2 Socio- Technical Regime (meso Level) These changes, at the landscape level, have exercised pressure on the waste regime for transition to a less polluting waste management practices. Such progress might have created a hope for the introduction of newer technologies. The regime consists of a network of human actors, social groups and institutions. Therefore, the analysis will focus on these elements.
A. Institutional and Regulatory framework Foxon (2002) defines institutions as any form of restriction that human beings formulate to form human interaction. These constraints are formal such as legislation, economic rules and contracts, or informal such as social conventions and codes of behavior. Many institutions are in involved in waste management in Lebanon (Antipolis, 2000; Arif and Doumani, 2014)6.The government has recognized the escalating problem with waste management In Lebanon and so in 2005, MOE prepared a draft law on Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM), as part of the EU-funded project Regional Solid Waste Management Project (RSWMP). (Jadam, 2010). It promoted the use of renewable energy, wherethe Lebanese government announced many
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times plans to integrate renewable resources to the grid (Kinab and elkhoury, 2012). As for WTE, The MoE in cooperation with CDR prepared an international bid. Accordingly, CDR prepared an international bid in coordination with the MoE. ConsequentlyRamboll, a Danish firm won the bid and prepared a feasibility study with an overall strategy to address SWM adopting WTE approaches. The government also approved allowing thermal treatment and valorization of waste as energy source in coastal urban areas (Arif and Doumani, 2014). Results indicate that in the case of Saida, the government decided to remove the Waste Mountain and move it towards WTE since 1999. Bidawistates, “The decision to remove the waste mountain was issued in 1999”. In his interview, Antaragrees, “Since I was at the school and I hear about transforming waste into energy in the city. This was at the end of the 1990s”. Moreover, Saad supports the same view that “we had many meetings about this mountain since the 1990s many institutions were involved in the process such as the MOE, UNDP, CDR, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Public Affairs and work”.This shows that the intention was there, but barriers existed in many aspects. B. Political will There was consensus amongst the interviewees that the political will of the political parties in Saida was a main trigger behind removing the waste mountain. The political will is defined as “Commitment of actors to undertake actions to achieve a number of objectives and to sustain the costs of those actions over time” (Persson and Sjöstedt, 2012). Bidawi pointed out at the role of political will of political parties in leveraging their connections in order to build the facility. “The city collectively took the decision to adopt anaerobic digestion in 1999. Later on, major political powers in the city used their connections with KSA to implement the
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project”. In the same context, in his interview the Mayor supported the previous statement by saying “MP Bahia Hariri, MP FouadSaniora and political parties supported me in removing the waste mountain”. But what is the reason behind this sudden wake up in the city to remove the mountain?
Eskridge (1988), earlier explained “individuals, interest groups, bureaucrats, and politicians are expected to strive for their own self-interest as in the market place”. Omar, an Environmental activist and a pro-Popular Nasserite Movement (Supporter of Saad), a rival for the Future Movement stated that the political will of politicians is triggered when their power is threatened. He Said: “The issue becomes a public concern especially by citizens who practiced pressure on MPs. During elections they promised they would remove this mountain”. However, the Mayor responded on whether this political will was emerged as a result of seeking self-interests by politicians, “To be fair, I do not want to say that politicians seek their own interest, they helped me. However as a municipality, we seek the public interest”. Similarly,Bidawi andEllie,a political activist and a resident of Saida,supported the mayor’s claim that political will in the city was behind finishing the project. This confirms the strong impact of the political will in triggering change in the city. There is a common Lebanese mantra that refers everything to the “political will”. Regardless if the mayor was being diplomatic or not, considering that Bidawi is known to be one of the major stakeholder in the project in terms of planning since it was a baby, and sustaining the facility might be his ultimate goal. This is can also be attributed to the fact that the political process depends on interactions between various politicians and bureaucrats (Gwartney, 2000).
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To elaborate on the above point, there is a rational behind such a trend. The lobbying of political parties in local and international levels was a major pillar in the project. In Lebanon, political parties have strong foreign sponsor-states that offer them financial supports (Mhanna, 2011)7. From other perspective, interested stakeholders may promote borrowing to finance spending (Butler 2012). The rationale behind this lobbying is triggered by the enormous benefits that they might get which is known as “rent seeking” (Lambsdorff, 2007,Tullock, 2008) or to achieve their personal plans (Blankart and Koester,2006). A Future Movement supporter, dietitian and a resident of Abra area in Saida, Sara Al Bizri, said that “Al Harriri family has historical relationships with KSA, They lobbied for it with Saudi investors there and they managed to get the finance. Such a thing would enhance their image in the city”. It is worthy to note that the relationship between the Harriri’s and KSA goes back to the days of the assassinated Lebanese-Saudi prime minster Rafic Al Hariri (Neal and Tansey, 2010). For MP Osama Saad, who is a rival to the Future Movement and who comes from a famous political family in the city, said that this case was personal to him. “As a citizen of the city it was personal. We had the plan to remove it and lobbied for it as well as coordinated my efforts with other political factions in the city to remove the mountain”. From this statement one can conclude the ‘political will’ might be the mantra of change in Lebanon and was the main trigger in removing the waste mountain, dealing with international pressures and getting the funds.
7 AymanMhanna is the youth coordinator of the Democratic Renewal Movement. He presented this paper during a conference at Queen’s University Belfast on “Conflicting Identities in Divided Societies” on May 13th 2011.
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C. Health risks, shared beliefs, cultural values Solid waste is a source of greenhouse gas emissions due to microbial decomposition of organic materials, which creates the greater portion of solid waste in Lebanon (EI Fadel and Sbayti, 2000). In addition, Lebanon emits more greenhouse gases per capita than the world average8. Saida had the largest “Garbage Mountain”, held a total volume of 1, 2 million m3 of waste that formed a mountain of around 45 meters high and 150 meters long with direct interaction with the sea. The accumulated waste was a mixture of MSW, organic and agricultural waste, industrial waste including chemicals, as well as hospital and slaughterhouse waste. Small pockets of methane gas that were formed in the internal parts of the dumpsite frequently created fires (Ahlbäck 2011). Rima, a resident of Qaya neighborhood in Saida, who lives 10 minutes’ drive away from the old dumpsite remembers when she used to smell stink during summer inside her house. She associates it with the low tolerance to such smell where she says that “during summer time the mountain used to explode and it displaced many people who used to sell a flat that worthy $120000 for 50000 and $60000 just to leave Al Fawkheer area around the mountain’s site”. On the same note, MukhtarAboud spoke about how pregnant ladies used to suffer from the
8 Lebanon high emitter of greenhouse gases. [online] The Daily Star Newspaper - Lebanon. Available at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2009/Aug-19/53750-lebanon-high-emitter-of-greenhousegases.ashx [Accessed 21 June. 2015].
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odors “Waste odors used to cover Saida and its surrounded villages, a lot of pregnant ladies and infants were affected”. Another resident of Saida stated that “The mountain was a source of diseases, Kids used to suffocate and a lot had respiratory problems because of the odors” (Abduallah, Interview). According to Zahi “ if you paid a visit to Hamoud Hospital before they open the facility, you would have seen people in queues, children with asthma and old people with cancer due to gasses released by the waste mountain which was exploding from time to time”. The mountain had also affected the marine organisms (Jadam, 2010) and destroying fisherman’s nets due to waste resided at the bottom of the sea.Saad, also supported the fisherman claim. Although this indicates that the municipality recognized the harmful health risk and decided to mitigate the diseases associated by removing it, however, Rima didn’t believe that politicians cared for people’s health, but rather were forced to ‘to respond to people’s demands’(Rima)to maintain political power and to sustain the control of the municipality. According to Antar, frustration of people with unfulfilledpromises by several municipal council and major political parties in the city lobbied for its removal. One of the interviewees claimed“Fueled with anger and lack of trust, voters, NGOs and some MPs started to threat political influence of some politicians” (Abdullah, Interview). Zahi stated, “Theissue becomes a public concern especially by citizens who practiced pressure on MPs. During elections they promised that they would remove this mountain”. Summary:Although Lebanon is still suffering from unsustainable WM practices except in Saida, there are a number of issues that destabilized the regime or were the triggers for transition. These issues are: the adoption of laws that call for SWM in Lebanon in general, the collective political will in the city to remove the mountain, and obtaining the finance. Moreover, the diseases in the city, the harm on marines, bad odours and the impact, pushed citizen’s to practice some pressure on politicians, thus paving the way for niche innovation.
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4.1.3Niche (Micro Level)
Within the niche level, more flexibility exists to deviate from the norm to the momentum of change (Rotmans et al., 2001, Geels, 2011,Kemp, 2010).Cities can deal with sustainability challenges,
since they are innovation hubs (Jacobs 1970) and can cope with this situation by adopting technologies that enable environmental development (Monstadt, 2007). As a result, transforming waste into energy has become one of the essential issues in promoting an alternative source of energy (Shrestha et al., 2014). Similarly, it can reduce human health risks and environmental impacts associated with poor waste management strategies (Joseph, 2006). In addition, SD requires a sustainable supply of clean and affordable renewable energy sources (Kothari et al., 2010). (WtE) is composed of a wide range of energy from waste approaches and techniques including incineration, pyrolysis, gasification, anaerobic digestion and cocombustion in existing industrial plants (Karagiannidis, 2012)9. The growing number of the Lebanese population, health risks and consumption patterns necessitates efficient waste management strategies and sustainable technologies such as WTE (Hammoudet et al., 2014). “Despite several barriers, WTE technology is the best future choice for Lebanon to manage its waste and reduce environmental risk”( Baidwi, Interview). Summary: From a transition perspective, the initiative of Saudi entrepreneurs in cooperation with IBL was like an opportunity for the city to divert from the traditional waste practices,
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which was landfilling and burning waste, to a sustainable SWM practices. It can also be considered as a radical innovation as Geels (2011) calls to deal with the defiance’s of the current regimes.
4.2Barriers 4.2.1Socio-Technical Landscape (Macro)
Based on the interviews and unlike the traditional transition processes described by Geels (2011), the hinder of such a transition in Lebanon is likely to be in the landscape level, where politicians control the structural trends and have a direct impact on the niche and regime actors. As a result, political barriers were included under the Macro level.The collective behavior of politicians based on the interviews, would remain the main barrier of such a transition since it causes a waste lock- in, which constrains the adoption of such sustainable practice.
4.2.2 Political Barriers A. Corruption In her report about corruption in Lebanon, Wickberg (2012) indicates that corruption is dominant over political parties, public institutions, parliament and the police.According to the Corruption Perception Index 2014, by which the notion of corruption of the governmental public employees which affects private investments in the country is measured, Lebanon ranked 136th on the international scale of 174. In addition interviewees supported this notion, as they believed politicians in Lebanon who dominate public institutions including the waste sector are corrupted. Moreover, they seek mostly to secure their positions within the government or the political arena, not to serve the public interest, but to ensure financial gains and maintain the status quo, which guarantee growing their fortunes. This condition 52
wasnurturedby the exploitation of sectarian differences – distracting citizens from making MP’s and ministers accountable for their actions. Other sub themes were clientelism, (Mohsasa), sectarianism and lack of transparency.Ziad says, “Corruption in Lebanon is structural within our system, politicians dominate the whole system, not only the waste or energy when I say all of them are corrupt I mean it”. Surprisingly, the Industry minister agrees that the system is corrupt and inefficient, however he attributes ittosectarianism. This could be explained by the norm thatpolitical leaders are chosen on sectarian criteria, not the best person for the job. As a result, corruption is hindering using WTE MP, this is confirmed by Saad,” The corrupt is boasting his head off in public and giving lectures about chastity and reforming. That is the hinder for WTE or any form of renewable energy”. As an affirmation of the corruption in the country, when asked about the barriers of adopting WTE in Lebanon, the Industry Ministerreplied, “It does not need a question, the waste management situation in Lebanon is a trash, corruption, Mohasasa (power-sharing system) and lack of trust in the political strata”. B. Clientelism Another sub patent that emerged was clientelism.Rahhall (2012) explains that consociationalism forced citizens to recognize with their sectarian identity as a precondition for eligibility in public administration, which in turn enforces the concept of clientelism and patronage that depends on the sponsorship of sectarian leaders.According to Rahhall (2012) there is positive correlation between the politician being a sponsor and the civil servant as a client.Aboudbelieves thatclientelism is a major barrier of implementing the Saida experience. He said, “Clientelism is the major barrier. The sector is also monopolized by those who have
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political support; you can see nepotism and only the family, men or relatives of this politicians are being awarded tenders”(Aboud, Interview). Aboud’s statement can be attributed to rent seeking behavior where politicians favor a specific group over another (Tullock, 2008). As for nepotism, it is a part of the Lebanese culture even in the publicsector. But what if it is merely a business issue? An anonymous official from EDL believes that the main hinders of adopting WTE in Lebanon is due to the fact that such a technology would decrease the income of some politicians. He said, “We lack electricity that is why citizens have to pay a bill of a private generator which are owned or politically covered by some politicians”.Lebanese citizens are still suffering from power shutdowns reaching 13 hours per day, and thus back generators are the last resort (Dagher and Ruble, 2010). All of the interviewees agreed that the owners of these generators are partnering with politicians. On this point Hassan indicates that when Zahle(a city in the north), which has 24 hours electricity supply tried to be innovative, a lot of people who were in charge received threats especially by generators’ owners (Hassan, Interview). This story was also stipulated in the Lebanese media. As cited in Blankart and Koester (2006) the political business cycle stipulates that politicians and bureaucrats are similar to businessmen in terms of being as self-centered and leverage their powers to achieve their personal goals and plans. On this point Dr. Charbel elaborated, “in such a sectarian system public posts are controlled by those leaders who only hire those who would utilize their positions to serve the politicians interest, some politicians are using the public sector as a private company, they offer a job for the applicant to ensure his loyalty. In summary, they offer social welfare service in exchange of having an insider who facilities their business”. Samisaid: “in most cases, the bureaucrat is loyal to those who pave his way to
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the office”.This phenomenon can be called electoral bribery (Bullter, 2012), which is trading votes against benefits. C. Mohasasa Another political barrier is “Mohasasa”. Rahhall (2012) defines it as ‘the power sharing among sectarian leaders’. However, when asked about the rationality of politicians in terms of the current waste management, the future opportunities of having WTE implemented in the Lebanon, and how rational it is to use Mohasasa MP Saadsaid,“They are irrational. Tendering is not transparent whether its waste or energy, and they did Mohasasa based on sectarianism and among different political leaders. The system is composed of gangs or a sectarian capitalist cartel that is looting the naturel resources and funds to accumulate wealth”.Saad comes from a socialist background, and such an answer was expected from him, revealing that perhaps a prerequisite to any mega project requires a political partner. D. Accountability Khan (2013) describes accountability as the support of a government to social and political objectives of authority, sharing, respecting the rights and equity. Nevertheless in the case of Lebanon, accountability doesn’t exist. “Accountability is not in Lebanon. It does not exist.”(Industry Minster, Interview).In the same context, Zaid Said,“who can you make accountable for his behavior? If national plans are assigned to councils owned by sectarian leaders such Council of the South, CDR and the Central Fund of Displaced. None can make them accountable”. (Zaiad, Interview).Zaid attributed that to the tendency of the majority of citizens to vote for the sectarian party. This behavior is described by Down as “rational
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ignorance” (Mackie, 2012) or irrational voter who undervalue gains from market mechanism and overrate the effectiveness of political initiatives (Caplan, 2007).
E. Transparency Lack of transparency was a common sub theme among most of the interviews. Transparency is defined as disclosing of any related information to interested stakeholders on timely manner and in a legal way (Salin&Abidin, 2011).Mahmodi, who is sworn accountant before Lebanese courts and a former senior Auditor in the Ministry of Finance and a CPA reveals that major hinder of implementing SWM practices is not financial but lack of transparency in public tenders “Once I was asked to audit the books of a company owned by Arabic investors in Lebanon and when I checked records in the Ministry of Justice I discovered that a previous prime minister was among the board members… mega projects needs a partner from the political strata”. This might explain why the investors in Saida were from KSA, as they enjoy good relationships with Al Hariri family. In the Lebanese context, politicians might try to seize any opportunity to make profits by monopolizing services or public goods by making it hard on new market entrants.Ziad also emphasized that tenders booklets are vague and not clear. By having a vague booklet, an investor has no choice but to seek the help of a politician. F. Bureaucratic Red Tape and Overlapping Mandates One of the main obstacles during the transition in Saida was the bureaucratic red tape.Red tape frequently described as unnecessary or worthless paperwork (Bennett and Johnson 1979). In Lebanon, bureaucracy had a tremendous damage on the Lebanese economy and has expanded 56
to other forms such economic corruption, favoritism and political intervention (as cited in El Mufti, 2011)10. This may justify why the license took a year to be issued, as confirmed by the mayor.
4.2.2 Socio Technical Regime (Messo) The coming section combines these factors to show how they enforce the current socio-technical configuration.
A. Institutional When approached from an institutional perception there are a lot of factors that work towards strengthening the current socio-technical configuration. Successive governments had approved many SSWM polices, strategies and master plans since 1998, yet they remained inapplicable impertinent (Arif and Doumani, 2014). SWM is a multifaceted process, which relies as much upon organization and co-operation between several public and private sector actors as it does upon appropriate technical solutions (Ahlbäck ,2011) .The institutional framework consisting of (CDR), (MoIM), and (MoE) and municipalities is also blurred and confusing (Arif and Doumani, 2014). Furthermore, there is an absence of a detailed institutional agenda that describes the role of each authority that would promote renewable energies including WTE (Kinab and Elkhoury, 2012). In addition, municipal authorities are stripped of their authorities in order to deliberately weaken them. The current deficiencies in waste management practices are a result of weak institutions (Arif and Doumani, 2014). But how did such weakness emerge? The following statement touch 10
Mufti, K. El (2011) The Management of Public Interest in Lebanon, a Broken Concept. Available at: http://policylebanon.org/Modules/Ressources/Ressources/UploadFile/8440_26,09,YYManagement%20of%20Pu blic%20Interest%20in%20Lebanon_El%20Mufti_2011.pdf (Accessed: 15 August 2015). 57
upon this weakness: “Since the civil war and confessional leaders are destroying public institutions such as the electricity and water seeking privatization and that is why they support electricity generators owners. How a country hasno ministry of planning?”, (Ziad, Interview).This confirmthat public institutions structures were weakened for the sake a politician’s narrow interest. From a transition theory perspective, specific institutional arrangementsare set by Lebanesepoliticiansto guide and direct the organizational behavior of institutions. And even when Innovation occurs gradually in a socio-technical system and leads with small adjustments to constant paths, this characterizes existing regimes by lock-in. This lock-in cannot only be solved by technology paths, but also in political and institutional dimensions. This interaction can make a system more stable or can also lead to tensions (Geels, 2011). B. Legal Waste management depends also on legal factors (Marshall and Farahbakhsh, 2013). In Lebanon, there is an absence of legal framework and poor enforcement of the law (Arif and Doumani, 2014). AttorneyRaad in his interview said:“There is Law No. 444 of 2002 on environmental protection and law no. 251, April 2014, which allows for the appointment of full-time environmental attorney generals and inspection judges in various Lebanese governorates. This law also calls to establish environmental police, however, there is a weakness in law enforcement”. In the researcher’s opinion it could also be the lack of financial resources to establish environmental police. The lawyer also explained that, “in Lebanon they do not implement the essence of laws but its surface. Many laws are in-effect due to the suspension of the parliament, government and
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other institutions”. He also revealed NGOs that are more organized than citizens are prohibited from suing the government or any entity that harms the environment. “NGOscannot sue the government or entity in case of any environmental damage. However citizens can do so”. This is not surprising since there are a lot of questions about the impact of political system on the judicial one.Moreover, a lot of citizens are ignorant about their right of litigation and don’t trust the judiciary system. A possible explanation is that politicians tend to pass vague laws and set up private agencies to govern them, rather than pass detailed laws that their political opponents could simply reverse once they come into office (Bulter, 2014, pg. 85). C. Administrational According to Arif and Doumani(2014) the waste sector in Lebanon suffers from lack of communication and exchange of information among stakeholders. The interviews show that a contrasting view of the waste management practices in Lebanon exists. For instance, the Mayor seesSaida as a success story, Bidawi calls it a partial success and Saad calls it a failure.Another sub theme that emerged was lack of communication among institutions, “The solution in Saida was outside the national consensus” (Zaiad, Interview). D. Cultural/Behavioral and NIMBY factors In Lebanon, increasing recyclables and sorting in the source requires a change in the mindset and behavior (Arif and Doumani, 2014). The results of some interviews may lead to the assumption that cultural norms and behaviors might hinder implementing SSWM in Lebanon.
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E. Ignorance Some cultural norms are related to the daily habits.“It is a culture to throw waste around the recycle bin and don’t sort it”(Hassan, Resident of HaretSaida, Interview).Similarly, lack of sorting is another negative behavior“The main challenge we faced was sorting which might not be a priority for citizens” (Bidawi, Interview) This is might be linked to the ignorance of citizens, however, Bidawi reveals that ignorance is common among some of those who are managing the waste sector in Lebanon. He elaborates, The political leader who is responsible for the waste file did not know that we receive the trash of his city”. This reflects ignorance on a leadership level. Sami also confirmed partisan leaders who are responsible for the waste management files are not aware of the topic. The Mayor indicated that the behavior of parents also has an impact“In schools students do sort yet when they get back home they see their mom acting in wrong way”. The behavior of some residents in Saida had also an impact of the technical aspect of the choosing waste treatment method. IBC, which is running the facility had to modify its German Systems three times. “The road to have a sustainable waste integrated system relies on control over the collection, delivering to the treatment facility, sorting and treatment process. All of these operations should be under control. Yes, we achieved a partial success yet we are still facing lack of sorting and that is why we modified the factory machine 3 times to match the characterizations of the waste produced in the city”. (Mayor, Interview).He asserted on the
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importance of sorting” in Germany they collect waste once a week but in Saida we collect it twice a day”.It seems that there is lack of environmental education and awareness in the education system, unlike developed countries. F. Lack of social acceptance for NGOs NGos are also facing lack of social acceptance of their work – asthe public questions their motivesand lack awareness of the risk associated to waste.“People think that we are making money out of the awareness campaigns, or we belong to a political party, they want a change yet not their back yards” (Najat, Interview).According to Najat, citizens are aware of the negative impacts of unsustainable waste practices, yet some prefer not to have treatment facilities around their areas. G. Political Opposition /NIMBY There is always a conflict between opponents and proponents for waste management facilities or what is described as the NIMBY syndrome (Terwel, et al., 2013). From a transition perspective, this can be attributed to the resistance of socio-technical system actors in order to maintain the status quo (Rotmans, 2005).In Saida, political opposition due to environmental concerns or hidden agenda also remains as a barrier for the site of WTE facilities.“We are against landfilling in the sea due to its environmental impacts and the location of the site in an area which is ranked as a tourism area. Our suggestion was to place the facility in a middle area at al Zahrani near the refineries to receive the waste of Tyre,Nabtiyeh and Saida and they opposed it.” (Saad, Interview). He indicated that without public pressure or enough votes his efforts are limited. Bullter, (2012 pg.83) explains that opposition politicians may practice some pressure influence on events, but they need to be in power and thus enough votes are needed. 61
In contrast, Bidawi explains that it’s the only suitable location for the facility. “This is the only location available for Saida so far to treat waste” (Bidawi, Interview).On his part Dr.Qawas pointed out that “MOE didn’t approve the chosen lands by the previous Mayor because they didn’t want to make him a hero. Later on, they built a coastal wall, and it had a hidden agenda not to solve the waste problem but to loot lands on this area and there was a decree in the 1990s to gentrify Saida similar to what happened to the Down Town of Beirut” (Qawas, Interview). The Previous Mayor was Abdualrahman Al Biziri who was an alley of Osama Saad, which makes Qawa’s statement somehow questionable since he belongs to the same political team of the previous mayor. Another opponent was Tourjoumane,” They didn’t remove the mountain, the pyramids become an inversed one because they pushed the trash to the sea”11. He is an environmental activist and anti-Future Movement, so such a claim to undermine the efforts of the IBL is expected. Bidawi, also quoted the Durzi Leader WaleedJunblat as a response on calls from some politicians who called him to practice more pressure on his people and maintain the status quo and keep Naameh landfill in operation. “Every area should handle its waste, not in my backyard”.To get an opinion outside the political arena, a mechanic who works in the Industrial zone near the facility was asked and he said “They could have built in Al Zahrani area, why here, Should I smell rubbish every day I open my workshop” (Mechanic).
11
Qawas provided photos to support this claim 62
Moreover, the Parliament also suggested some new Laws over years, yet they were hampered because of the NIMBY syndrome, the political economy, the lavish costs of disposal and the unwillingness to pay for the service by citizens (Arif and Doumani, 2014). Waste disposal in Lebanon is to some extent problematic due to harsh terrain and narrow surface area (Jadam, 2010). However, even if the location is found there might be an opposition. Joseph a senior official from the Ministry of Water and Electricity in Saida said that the geographic location of waste management facilities are the main barrier in establishing or integrating water waste systems to current waste management facilities. “The geographic location of the facility should be away from residential areas 250 m straight line or 500m. The facility needs to open roads especially in the case of typographical barriers. Nevertheless, people might oppose. If the site is near houses, people will protest because of stink and the noise from operations”. (Joseph, Interview). H. Priorities Despite its negative impact, the waste management file in Lebanon is not a priority for some citizens.“Unfortunately, people are busy chasing their livelihood of their kids” (Hassan, Interview) Similarly, Saad indicates “this topic is not a priority at this stage since they have daily concerns related to these livelihood. The waste flooded in Beirut made the resident of Saida satisfied with the current situation. Without a public pressure you cannot do anything”. However, Tourjoumane explains this prioritization as the desire of some citizens who receive social welfare services and financial supports from some politicians “Some citizens can not oppose the current policies because they need jobs for their kids, scholarships and maintain the few dollars they receive at the end of the month”.Yet, the industry minister indicated, “what 63
incentivize people to take an action happens when they suffer from economic losses, blocking road because of waste, health, environmental problems and loses in the tourism sector”. (Industry Minster, Interview).
4.2.3 Niche (Micro) A. Finance Another barrier was the lack of financial resources and adequate budget allocated for municipalities (Marshall and Farahbakhsh, 2013). In essence, governments are responsible for the management of MSW in terms of administrative, financial budgeting and cost control, legal, planning and engineering functions involved in the MSWM (Beigl et,. al 2008). However, most of developing countries face budget constraints to develop SWM systems (Marshall and Farahbakhsh, 2013). Financing of SWM in Lebanon happens through many mechanisms including different stakeholders. Mostly the CDR and the MoF allocates direct budget funding through the treasury or the Independent Municipal fund for waste collection and construction and operation of SWM facilities (Ahlbäck ,2011) . The SWM sector suffers from lack of financial support from the government, local representatives and individuals,12hence the system is not sustainable as cost recovery is minimal (Sweep, 2014). In addition, WTE is a renewable technology andis considered high in comparison to present conventional technologies (Kinab and Elkhoury, 2012). Moreover,
12 http://throughouttheline.com/files/103734135.pdfOmsar, visited 12-09-2015
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municipalities that are responsible for waste collections in some areas lack adequate financial resources (Abdel Malak et al., 2002).This could be themost significant factor second to the political barrier.
On this issue, the mayor said: “Lack of financial resources comes first. Our budget is $5 million and we spend on waste $2.5 million on waste. For a municipality this budget is nothing”. He added, “ As other municipalities in Lebanon, “Saida covers its expenses by the municipal fund which pays the amount of money we need as a credit from the municipal fund till the central government releases our budget”. This is common among all Lebanese municipalities except Beirut municipality, which has its independent budget. Furthermore, Lebanon is facing lack of financial support for waste management awareness campaigns (Sweep,2014)as confirmed by NajatFarhat, this might be attributed to ignorance.The question here arises as whether banks play a role in promoting investment in the waste management sector? A branch manager at a leading bank who asked to remain anonymous explained that banks don’t finance mega project due to risk management restrictions” the risk is high and even if an investor have the money, if he does not have a political cover or partner he will not apply for the tender”. (Anonymous Banker, Interview). On the other hand, some believe budget constraints is not a barrier” It is not about funds, it ismohasasa” (Industry Minster). Abudallah states that there is always a way to find funds for mega projects “the political strata is connected to foreign powers who supply them with money through funds or indirectly through investments” (Abudallah, Interview).
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Adopting SSWM solutions can be expensive in terms of collecting, sorting, recycling waste. Furthermore, and in the case of WTE, producing electricity from waste has a higher cost in terms of transferring power to the whole city.“There is no way that Saida will fully depend on waste to produce its energy but it could be a part of an integrated system.It only produces 2 MW- Saida needs 70 MW. It has a lot the cost of transferring the power. Maybe it can be integrated to a system”. (Mayor, Interview) B. Technical factors There are two types of technical hinder: financial, and lack of expertise. In discussing the finance, there is lack of human capital that is trained on SWM practices (Troschinetz and Mihelcic, 2009) or solving technical problems (Marshall and Farahbakhsh, 2013). From the information derived in this study, producing waste from energy depends also on the amount of wastes treated. In the case of Saida “"We are making losses. We treat every ton for $95. The intake of our facility should receive 350 ton yet our annual intake is 220 ton". (Bidawi, Interview). This indicates that waste can be a valuable material as mentioned above. However, a Palestinian resident of Saida explained, “As an engineer, there are a lot of technical requirements such as lands, technologies, and social acceptance.” (Ahmad, Interview).In contrast Bidawi believes that Lebanon lack the expertise in the field of SSWM. However, the Industry Minister described it as an easy process “It is not Nano Technology or rocket science, the requirements for SWM practices are known”.
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Chapter 5 Key Findings and Conclusion 5.1 Key findings Interviews with the Lebanese waste sector stakeholders indicated that that there are many factors affecting within the context of the transition theory such as institutional, financial, political, health, cultural values and technological innovations.
At a landscape level: changes at this level have exercised pressure on the waste regime for transition to a less polluting waste management practices. Such progress might have created a hope for the introduction of newer technologies. The international complaints and the foreign funds have created a pressure on the regime level and triggered the radical changes in the niche level.
At a meso level: the adoption of laws that call for SWM, and the collective political will in the city was the main factor to remove the waste mountain. Moreover, the negative health impacts on inhabitants, the harm on marines, bad odours and the impact on their different aspects of life, pushed citizen’s to practice some pressure on politicians, and thus paving the way for niche innovation.
At a mirco level: individual actors such as entrepreneurs and start-ups or technologies, created more flexibility to deviate from the current waste management practices to the momentum of change (Rotmans et al., 2001, Geels, 2011, Kemp, 2010). In the context of this thesis, the initiative of Saudi entrepreneurs in cooperation with IBL was like an opportunity for the city
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to divert from the traditional waste practices, which was landfilling and burning waste, to a sustainable SWM practices. It can also be considered as a radical innovation as Geels (2011) calls to deal with the defiance’s of the current regimes.
By comparing the findings of the research with theory, issues below can be deducedabout triggers and barriers of waste management sector in Lebanon. Within the current urbanization, consumption of natural resources and the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (Lehmann, 2011), sustainability challenges are inevitable for Lebanon. Moreover, in light of the current waste lock in, Lebanonhave to go through transition, which will involve a change in structure (physical: infrastructure, supply systems; institutional: new regulations, policies, etc.), culture (sum of shared norms, values, images, etc.) and practices (routines).To trigger the transition in Lebanon, the efforts should be focused to sustain the driving forces and mitigate the barriers. In line with the assumptions of the reconfiguration pathway, the landscape pressures will be essential for triggering this process. Nevertheless, while the influence of these are unavoidable, particularly as many of the landscapebarriers have direct correlations with activities at this scale, there also needs to be greater influence from the underlying niche and regime levels. This stands for the niche scale which is currently very weak. Based on the insights derived from the MLP, it appears that one of the main ways to strengthen niche dynamics and speed up the process of regime reconfiguration is to remove the landscape barriers. As shown, the landscape level contains the largest number of restrictions and one of the more prominent barriers is a lack of political will. To stimulate niche radical changes activity and to make sustainable waste practices like WTE more acceptable, a pressure from the meso level
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by institutionsenforcing laws and creating awareness of citizens is needed. Finally, the key triggers and barriersof waste management transition in Lebanon are likely to be political ones. 5.2 Conclusion The analysis of the driving forces and barriers aboveshows that although the transition was steered towards the waste sector in Saida, as portrayed by the landscape components, the transition process is exceptional as it involved a dual transition of two systems; political and waste. An unanswered question remains, where is the catalyst for change going to emerge? In our case, unlike the traditional scenario, where niche actors drive transitions, regime actors will likely be the ones stimulating the process. It is apparent that the majority of the barriers lie at the landscape level, indicating there is great need for macro-scalar shifts. Additionally, based on the current situation, it is unlikely that there will be any specific niche level shifts encouraging the transition to SWM practices.
In Summary, the current Lebanese waste sector is unsustainable where landfilling is the main predominated practice. The main triggers for a waste transition in Lebanon lie in the regime level such as, political will, financial and public pressure. As for barriers, they lie at the landscape level, where political factors represent the main waste lock-in and could hinderanywaste sector reconfiguration pathway as suggested by Geels&Schot (2007). In order to implement Saida’s example in Lebanon, it highly recommended stimulating the political will, fighting corruption, accountability, in the regime level supported by innovations in the niche level, to destabilize the current socio-technical system. Local lobbying by the authorities in promoting awareness about sustaible waste management practices is needs. Politicians also need to lobby internationally in order to get the required funds. 69
In light of the unsustainable waste management practices in Lebanon, the heavy reliance on landfilling, and thecurrent waste lock-in, the transition toward SSWM is much needed to overcome the lock-in and shift towards sustainable ones. This dissertation has attempted to analyze the theoretical discourse on the waste management transition, the catalysts and the barriers of such a transition in the context of Lebanon with a focus on Saida.The analysis shows that a certain stakeholder like the government does not trigger the transition process but it can be through a collective action on several levels (Loorbach 2007). It also shows that political factors, economic, social, and technological factors will hinder these triggers. 5.3 Future Research Future research is required mainly in two domains: transition theory and MLP. In the transition theory,there is need to resolve the debate about the shortage of the transition theory and MLP in analyzing transitions as mentioned above(Gardiner, 2012). Second, the MLP is “too descriptive and structural, leaving room for greater analysis of agency and focus on the governance of socio (Smith et al. 2005, p. 1492). This implies more research about other aiding tools to explain the transition process.
Third, there are no studies about sustainable waste management transition in Lebanon or in the Arab World. As a result, more attention should be paid the barriers and triggers of transforming to sustainable waste practices in the region. The dire need for energy in Lebanon, its shortage in electricity and current waste crisis would need further investigationconstituting a study of waste systems and renewable energy once in a holistic approach.
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Finally, this study has not focused on the different waste to energy technologies. Further research in this area is a recommended priority to provide policy makers with the necessary scientific knowledge. The findings of this study can be used as basis for future research in the area.
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Appendices
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Appendix 1-
Caption: The piles of untreated waste inside the facility Source: Dr. Ismat Al Qawas
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An example of how waste is still being dumped according to Qawas Source: Dr. IsmatQawas
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Caption: The Sea Wall Source: Dr. Ismat Al Qawas
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Appendix 2
Oral Consent Form Hello (or Salute, or Salam Alykom), my name is JameelKaraki, I’m doing a research and I wondered if you’d be interested in being involved? If you are not busy, can I proceed? If yes, we can rearrange a new phone call, or an appointment. I’m currently a MSc (Masters) student in the Department of Continuing Education at University of Oxford in the department y. My research is about transition towards integrated models of municipal solid waste management in Lebanon, with a focus on the city of Saida (Sidon). To understand such a transition, this study will focus on the political, institutional and financial barriers of using waste to energy in Lebanon by using a theoretical framework and interviews conducted with experts and elites related to the topic. Can I tell you more about the study – when does it suit you? In my study, I want to investigate the current waste management practices in Lebanon, waste to energy and how to produce electricity from waste. This will be done by interviews by elite, experts and citizens interviews who have knowledge and experience related to the topicI’m interested in. If you choose to be a part of this, here is what will happen: I will have a conversation with you where I will ask a whole range of questions about 8 to 12 questions. The answers you give will form the basis of my Masters Degree thesis. The personal information you will share with me will not be passed to any third party. This research is anonymous, which means that in my publications, your name will shall not be used, unless you insist on the opposite. Do you want your name to be published? Are you sure? This is completely voluntary, as well as unpaid and we can stop any time you like. During the interview, I will use an audio recorder to make sure I’m getting an accurate record of your thoughts. OR I can take notes in my notebook. Which would you prefer? I may want to re-contact you to clarify information from your interview. In that case, I will ask you if you have time to answer some more questions about your interview. Personal data and quotes might be destroyed about the end of the project, unless you insist on the opposite. If you agree to participate in this project, the research will be written up as a thesis. On successful submission of the thesis, it will deposited both in print and online in the University archives, to facilitate its use in future research. The thesis will be published with restricted access and will be available to internet users with academic affiliation. Further, the research will also be written up for articles to be published in academic and public journals if applicable. This research project has been reviewed and approved by the university’s ethics committee. If you would like to speak to the University directly, I will give you their postal address. Their email is
[email protected]. Do feel free to contact me also on my mobile (0096599538107). You can also reach me via my email.
[email protected] If you remain unhappy and wish to make a formal complaint, please contact the ethics committee.
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Appendix 3 Sample of some Interview questions in Arabic/ English noting that questions were changing based on the flow of the interview and the time given.
كيف تصفون إدارة النفايات في لبنان بشكل عام؟
كيف تصفون إدارة النفايات في صيدا؟
ما هي أبرز المعوقات التي تواجهكم كصناع قرار عند إقراركم سياسات عامة؟
ما هي مقومات سياسات إدارة النفايات المستدامة؟
كيف تصفون عملية التحول من وسائل إدارة النفايات التقليدية إلى الحديثة واألقل ضررا على البيئة إلى مصنع يعالج النفايات وينتج الطاقة؟
من هم الالعبون الرئيسون في ملف النفايات في صيدا؟
ما هي أبرز المعوقات التي واجهتكم في عملية التحول هذه؟
ما نوع المعوقات؟ هل هي مالية ،قانونية؟ مؤسساساتية؟ سياسية؟ تقنية؟ بيئية وكيف تعاملتم معها؟
إلى أي مدى يؤثر سلوك السكان في عملية إدارة النفايات من حيث حجم النفايات وعملية صنع القرار ؟ ما هو دور القطاع الخاص في قصة نجاحكم؟
كيف حولت صيدا أزمة النفايات إلى مثل يشار إليه في لبنان؟ هل يمكن لمدينة صيدا االعتماد على النفايات كطاقة بديلة لتوليد الكهرباء في بعض أحيائها؟ ولماذا؟
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Appendix 4 Sample of some Questions in English How do you describe the waste management practices in Lebanon?
Is waste considered as a serious threat to Lebanon?
How this threat was evolved?
What are the factors that impact the waste management practices in Lebanon?
What are the common practices and methods in waste treatment used in Lebanon?
Do you prefer any of them?
What are the technical and environmental sides of these methods? What are the catalyst of adopting such a technologies? What are the institutional requirements for adopting technologies? Do you recall any landmark waste management facilities in Lebanon? What are the benefits of waste recycling and reuse? What are the pre- requests of adopting new waste management technologies?
Speaking about Saida, Why Saida decided to switch from Landfill to waste to energy? How this planet emerged as a solution? Do you think Lebanon can produce electricity from waste? Why?
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Appendix 5 Waste management in the Arab World
The Arab world, especially the oil producing countries in the Gulf Co- operation Council states (GCC), provides a substantial supply of energy by exporting oil to those countries which need it (Al Ansari, 2012). Remarkably, there was an interest in renewable energy in these oil exporting countries during the last decade despite their significant financial resources and oil reserves (Alnaser, 2011). Moreover, there was also an interest in improving current solid waste management practices (AlAnsari, 2012). In the present, almost every country in the region is investing in renewable energies by funding research centers to discover the potential for using solar and wind energies (Khalil et al., 2010). For example, Saudi Arabia recognized that mass burn with recycling scenario shows potential energy demand reduction of about 55.6 million barrels of crude oil(Ouda et al., 2015). In Kuwait, despite the continuous availability of electric power, the government is seeking to recycle solid waste and integrate it with other solid waste management options to reduce environmental degradation and diversify energy sources (Alhumoud, 2005). Similarly, Qatar had invested material resources into waste management initiatives to curb the problem of carbon wastes in its cities (Abosedra et al, 2009).However, non-oil producing countries in the Middle East do not have plentiful natural resources and rely heavily on imported oil to produce electricity. Furthermore non-oil producing countries such as Jordan and Lebanon have realized that the way they manage their solid waste does not meet the objectives of sustainable development and recognized that shifting from traditional solid waste management (SWM) practices to an integrated solid waste management approach is imperative ( Abu Qdais,2007).Nonetheless, such projects face a number of challenges. First, the majority of these countries lack the expertise and the allocation of necessary financial funds to treat waste. Second, the execution of waste management projects in Arabia depends on the actual living standards, politics and inter-governmental cooperation in the particular region (Nassouret al., 2008). As for the waste management challenges, most governments in the region recognized the waste management problems and wish to implement efficient solutions (Nassour et al., 2008). To illustrate, UAE launched “Masdar”; an initiative to combat climate change, create a zero waste city and depend on alternative sources of energy(Reiche, 2010). However, most of these countries are still facing major challenges in terms of environmental law enforcement, technical management, and financing suitable waste management systems (Nassouret al., 2008).
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Appendix 6 Ethical Concerns
Informed consent was addressed by informing all participants (interviewees) in the study that their role is voluntary. Moreover, I informed and explained to them the purpose of my study, in addition to written detailed information on how I will be conducting it (e.g. methodology, aim and purpose). Furthermore, all the participants were informed of how their information will be used in my research. Lastly, some participants were given informed consent forms to sign yet none signed. As result oral informed consent happened to face or via the phone.
Confidentiality was addressed by informing all participants that, their confidentiality and their given information will be protected and will not be published without their permission. Moreover, they were informed that their information will be stored and recorded privately.
Privacywas addressed by informing all participants that their privacy will be respected and their identity will remain anonymous unless they express otherwise by stating so in the given informed consent forms.
My intention was to seek short interviews that do not exceed 30 minutes. However, Interviews took a shorter time especially with elites and others took longer. Some interviews were booked 3 weeks in advance via phone and email, followed by a confirmation call or email. Others were booked at the end of August. Interviews was conducted in accordance with the interview request, in terms of place, timing and communication form (Face to face, Skype, or phone). Some interviews were recorded after gaining permission from interviewees and transcribed in English or translated from Arabic to English, noting that the data will be storied on a safe
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server provided by the university. A thematic analysis was followed. It helped to look across all the data to identify the common issues that recur, and identify the main themes that summarize all the views that were collected. This is the most common method for descriptive qualitative projects.
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Appendix 7 Lebanese Electricity Sector As a result of the civil war that lasted for 15 years, the Lebanese electricity sector in 1990 was in an inefficient form; key components of the generation, transmission, and distribution sectors were devastated during the clashes among sectarian and secular parties, and the components that were not destroyed faced lack of maintenance and negligence. Later on, a major reintegration plan in the 1990s, led to expansion of the generating capacity and the transmission and distribution networks were repaired, yet remained inefficient (Dagher and Ruble, 2011). However, the World Bank (2009) states that Lebanese citizens are still suffering from power shutdowns reaching 13 hours per day, and thus back generators are the last resort (Dagher and Ruble, 2010), with a cost that is double the electricity offered by the government through Electricity of Lebanon (EDL- Electricitie de Liban), a public institution under the governance of the Ministry of Energy and Water (Ibrahim et al., 2013). In 2013, the Ministry of Finance spent 4.5 % of GDP on Electricité du Liban (EdL), accompanied by stable tariffs that go back to 1996, when the price of an oil barrel was $23 (IMF, 2013). According to a report published by BLOM Bank, Lebanon debt to GDP ratio was at 133% by the end of 2011. Even in the capital, electricity is available for only 12 hours a day, pushing residents to spend money on generators EDL’s main source of income is dependent on Government transfers, which are spent covering the deficit in order to pay the fuel and gas bills but not to develop the electricity sector. These funds amount to US$ 1.5 billion, or US$ 375 per person per year (Ministry of Finance, 2009). To compensate for this shortage, the government buys electricity from Syria (589GWh) and Egypt (527Wh) (Ministry of Energy and Water, 2010). As for energy production in Lebanon, the country does not produce oil or coal and most of the energy is imported. The use of renewable sources does not exceed 2% of the entire energy consumption (Chedid and Chaaban, 2003). Due to the outdated energy laws that goes back to the 1970s and the overall culture of citizens, Lebanon is not leveraging its strategic geographical and climatic conditions such as long sunny days, solar flow and mountainous nature (Kinab and Elkhoury, 2012). To make things worse, the influx of Syrian refugees has increased the pressure on public services, including, health, education, electricity supply and waste disposal.
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Appendix 8 Interviews Table A total 21 interviews were conducted for this paper. Public Sector
Name/Title
Reason
Waste to energy facility in
Waste management
Saida is the capital of South
Saida
treatment facility manager
of Lebanon, where the city
Sami Bidawi from IBC Inc.
had established the first waste
provides environmental
to energy planet, yet the
solutions in the areas of
facility is not utilized to
Municipal Solid Waste
produce electricity to the
Management (MSW) and
neighborhoods around. This
Wastewater, in addition to
helped in understanding how
the treatment of Hospital,
such a transformation
Hazardous &
happens, what challenges they
Slaughterhouse Waste. He
faced and his perspective on
followed the establishment
waste management
of the project since its
perceptive.
initial planning phase IBC, Saida Municipality
Mayor, Mohammed al-
To gain more understanding
Saudi.
about how the city removed its waste mountain and established the mentioned factory above, and the
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political, environmental and institutional factors that led to such a transformation.
NGO(non-governmental
NajatFarhat, A pharmacist
To get a non-official
organization)
and a pioneer who was a
perspective about the impact
co- founder of The call of
of the current energy
Earth “Neda Al Arad”
production practices on the
Organization for sorting and environment and the recycling since 1995 in the
challenges facing NGOs
city of Arabsalim 30 km of Saida and the only village that contained following sustainable waste practices till the time of writing this.
Law firm
Lawyer. Bilal Raad, a
To elaborate more about
member of the
environmental laws and legal
Environmental committee
barriers, and why there is a
at the Bar Association
weakness in laws enforcement.
Mp
Mp, Osama Saad and the
To understand the impact of
Popular Nasserite
political parties in shaping
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Movement leader which is a energy and waste major political faction in
management policies, and the
the city.
challenges facing legislators in enforcing their agendas.
Official from the Ministry
Mukhtar, SalimAboud:
To understand how the
of Interior and
Head of neighborhood who
municipality as a local
Municipalities
was chosen by official
government deals with waste
elections and certify official management and how it documents. His Stamp is
benefited from establishing
recognized by the
recycling facility. In addition
government and he enjoys a to gain an insight about the good relationship with all
relationship between his
political parties. His family
community and public
owned the first dairy
institutions and how they
products factor in the city.
could lobby for it.
He represents the Al Qenyah Neighborhood in Saida. He is an active member of many Christian societies in the City and followed up the creation of the WTE
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facility in the saida.
EDL
Anonymous Official
To explore the challenges of implementing waste to energy as a source of energy in Lebanon.
Ministry of Industry
The Industry Minister, Dr.
To understand why renewable
Hussein Hajj Hassan, and a
energy is a debated topic in
member who Hizbullah
the country yet it not preferred
bloc who is in charge of the
over fuel to produce
waste polices inside the
electricity and to get inside
bloc.
information about the waste management hidden factors.
Engineering company
Power engineer and a
to understand the impact of
project Manager Ali Henino renewable energy on the , who led many projects as
current infrastructure and the
manager and consultant in
technical barriers to adopting
the field of power and
renewables as a source of
electricity in Ukraine, GCC
electricity
and Lebanon as well in Saida. A major opponent for the
Dr.issmat al Qawasa
118
To hear the voice of
WTE center in Saida and
mathematician, socialist
opponents and to discover
raised many questions
and an education expert
how do NIMBY movements
about the treatment
who taught at the Lebanese
happen.
methods followed.
University, he also led many resistance groups in Saida during different wars and a Manager of Saida.net news website.
Citizen who is a supporter
Eng. ZahiAntar a resident
Gaining insights from the
of the Future Movement
of SaydaNafesa
citizens will decrease the bias
neighborhood and an owner
of official and might help to
of a construction company
shed the light on points I
in the city of Saida
missed.
Ziad Abdel Samad,
To understand how corruption
Executive Director of the
is affecting waste
Arab NGO Network for
management practices in
Development (ANND) and
Lebanon on understand the
Treasurer of the Board of
some of the barriers related to
Directors of the Euro-
implement WTE in Lebanon.
Transparency Society
Mediterranean civil platform and General Manager of the Centre for Developmental Studies
119
(MADA), a Lebanese center for social and economic studies and research. He is also a major consultant in the field of Governance A political activist
Ellie Majdalani, A Christian To get another opinion political activist in the city of Saida who was a part of a lot of protest against waste management practices in Lebanon and Saida. He is a resident of Abra area in Saida
A political Analyst
Dr.BacharaCharbel, a
To understand the political
political journalist and who
interactions between
headed many newspapers in institutions and voters and
Citizen Zahi Al Bizri
London, Lebanon and
how the public choice is
Kuwait. He is also a
explained in Lebanese
resident of Saida Area.
context.
An independent
To get another perspective
environmental activist Citizen Omar Tourjoumane
A political and
To get another perspective
111
environmental activist in the city of Saida who broke into the WTE site many times and took photos of violations of the environmental standards (According to him) Citizen who is a supporter
Eng. ZahiAntar a resident
Gaining insights from the
of the Future Movement
of SaydaNafesa
citizens will decrease the bias
neighborhood and an owner
of official and might help to
of a construction company
shed the light on points I
in the city of Saida
missed.
Asked to remain
To see the impact on the
anonymous
marine life
Asked to remain
To check if banks do finance
anonymous
Mega projects related to
A fisherman
A Banker
sustainability. A Citizen who live in
Hassan, a pharmacist and
To get another opinion from a
HaretSaids
pro Amal Organization.
citizen with different political background.
Resident
Ahmed, a Palestienian resident in Saida
111
To get another perspective.
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