LIBYA: with $1m, Greater Tripoli will improve the management of its plastic waste

Faced with increasing plastic pollution in Greater Tripoli in Libya, a plastic waste management project has been launched in the municipalities of Souq Al-Jumaa, Abu Salim and Central Tripoli. The work will require an investment of one million dollars.

Greater Tripoli continues its fight against plastic pollution. The Libyan regional authorities recently launched a plastic waste management project in the municipalities of Souq Al-Jumaa, Abu Salim and Central Tripoli. The 30-month project is supported by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

“Reducing the negative environmental impact per capita in cities is a major challenge and requires particular attention to air quality and municipal waste management. Given that more than 85% of Libya’s population is concentrated in cities, particularly in the northern coastal strip”, says UNOPS. The aim is to strengthen waste management services by adopting circular economy practices such as recycling, which will considerably reduce plastic pollution.

In Tripoli, Libya’s largest city and capital, many beaches were closed in July 2021, and a month later several other beaches stretching over some 30 kilometres were banned from bathing due to pollution from waste, particularly plastic.

In addition to reducing pollution, recycling this waste in Greater Tripoli will create job opportunities for young people in the waste recycling sector. The work, details of which were not given, will cost the Greater Tripoli regional authorities one million dollars.