Rawabi

Bayti has created a project plan for a recycling program within the Rawabi city that will serve as a prototype for future expansion of recycling efforts in Palestine as a whole. Some of the key components of the recycling plan are:

Educate residents to separate metal, paper and cardboard from general waste and then collect recyclables door-to-door on a designated “recycling day” which is different from the general waste collection day.
Employ people who currently canvass the streets collecting aluminum cans and scrap for resale to collect, separate and re-sell recyclable metals for Rawabi.
If revenues cannot support door-to-door collection, recycling banks could be set up on site where residents can bring their paper and metal, which is then collected periodically by the local authority.
Glass could also be collected, maybe at a later stage, if a suitable recycling stream for this material can be set up. At a later stage plastics and other materials could also be included in the scheme.
An area of great environmental benefit would be the separation of organic waste from general waste for composting, or even anaerobic digestion for biogas generation.

There is little precedent in the region for the collection of recyclable waste, however this solution could have high potential of reducing unnecessary pollution as well as improving the living environment for the residents.