Syria, Lebanon, Jordan kick off environment protection project

The integrated project to deal with waste that result from olive pressing among Syria, Lebanon and Jordan was launched yesterday in Beirut to overcome problems due to traditional ways of pressing and handling its effects on the environment.

Director of the General Board for environment affairs in Syria, Akram el-Khouri, and General Secretary of the Ministry of Environment in Jordan as well the Director General of the Lebanese ministry of Environment in addition to representative of the UNDP in Lebanon attended the lunching.

Syria's representative to the meeting noted that the project comes to surmount difficulties due to the traditional way of pressing olives and dealing with their passive impact on the environment in a way that does not increase the product costs. "The project aims at establishing a system for integrated environment running for industrial wastes by using concepts of the most clean product and protection procedures in dealings with the olive oil industry," Khouri said.

The project will choose 6 pressers in each country to evaluate their impact on the environment, as well using concepts of the clean production techniques in three pressers as environmental examples in each of the three states involved.