A Source of Hope

As the first City Council visit this year, along with members from the Environment Committee, I visited the Recycling Mega-Plant in the South of Tehran. Kahrizak which is the District now mostly known for the notorious   detainment facility where several young protesters were beaten to death last year, also harbors the largest recycling facility in the Middle East. The Environment Committee during my tenure has visited the Plant for four times and we witnessed dramatic changes this time. More than 7000 tons of waste are produced in Tehran everyday, up to several years ago all of this was dumped in a landfill which has grown considerably in size.Two years ago we adopted  a bill on the Comprehensive Plan for Tehran Waste Management and the Law has been implemented for the past years. Throughout the city more than one hundred recycling centers where dry  waste is collected has been set up, coupons are given to people who deliver the paper, glass or plastic and recently a green credit card system is being implemented.
As we witnessed yesterday , now more than 4000 tons of waste are composted to produce grade A fertilizer and projects to compost the rest of the 3000 tons are underway. A wastewater treatment plant is underway and a well engineered landfill with geo-membrane lining has been constructed which will harbor the remaining 10 percent of waste which cannot be composted.
There are many remaining projects and alot of work remains to be done in this area. What we saw and recorded was significant strides in implementing the Comprehensive Plan by the Tehran Municipality. This is in contrast to what we see in the government sector and  very promising at a time when the they are weak and incapable in implementing large projects successfully . It is a source of hope for a city of  9 million residents.