For the objects that can easily be recycled by people, Kehdy is opening a centre in Beirut called Ecosouk to provide a space where the rubbish from the clean-ups can be sorted and processed. It will be a centralised hub where Beirut’s locals can find out for themselves what they can do – and where they can take their recycling. There will even be an open data source for people to access online and find out what green initiatives are happening in their municipality.

We’re on our way to the Ecosouk when our taxi driver throws some paper out of the window. Kehdy is, to say the least, not best pleased. I ask her how that makes her feel when she’s dedicating her life to changing Lebanese behaviour around sustainability.

“It’s okay, because even if he threw it out the window, and even if he threw it in his bin, it’s going into the sea. Maybe a few years ago we could have been shouting at him, telling him that’s wrong. But now the system is so broken that the government’s dumping the garbage into the sea. How are you going to get someone to not throw it out the window?”

One organisation hoping to prompt behavioural change – or ‘nudging’ – is Recycle Beirut, a company that works with businesses like restaurants and schools as well as local residents. You ring them up, they come and collect your recycling and take it to their factory to sort and process it. They hire Syrian refugees in an attempt to solve both the garbage and refugee crises Lebanon is trying to deal with.

“We believe in doing a social job in addition to an environmental job,” says Sam Kazak, one of the co-founders. “What we are doing is we’re trying to create as many jobs as possible for refugees and for all vulnerable people in general. Most of our workers are Syrian and Palestinian refugees. They don’t have any problem working in this industry.”