Lebanon is a country with massive waste problems, its inhabitants creating an estimated 1.57 million tons of waste per year. As the country struggles to implement widespread waste management practices that make use of reusable and recyclable material, some ingenious people in Lebanon are coming up with creative new ways to do their part by turning trash into something of value. From recycled hand-blown glass to an eco-friendly microbrewery, these projects are bringing green thinking to the masses.

In Sarafand, a coastal city in southern Lebanon, the Khalife family kept the Phoenician tradition of glassblowing alive for generations. But in recent years, business slowed to the point where six months ago, the company was ready to close for good, due to competition with the cheaper goods from the international market and a lack of distribution points.

That tradition will now be preserved by the family’s collaboration with Ziad Abichaker, an environmental and industrial engineer and CEO of the waste-management company Cedar Environmental, which created the Green Glass Recycling Initiative (GGRIL).

GGRIL was brought about as a consequence of the 2006 war in Lebanon. In July of that year, Israel destroyed the country’s only green-glass manufacturing plant in the Bekaa Valley. This was an important factory for alleviating the glass-bottle burden on the environment. In their remanufacturing process, up to 50% of their raw material to make new green glass and colored bottles came from reclaimed glass bought from their network of recyclers.