In a distinctive environmental step, the town of Chekka is working on the installation of the largest Christmas tree made of empty plastic water bottles from the sorting work before recycling.
The Municipality of Chekka seeks to enter the Guinness Book with this project.
Chekka is a coastal town in north Lebanon, famous for its beautiful beaches and its freshwater submarine springs.
Hopefully soon, it will also be known as the region in which Lebanon broke a world record for an environmental initiative, after doing so with the largest mosaic made of recyclable materials at Dbayeh Waterfront City a year ago.
With this Christmas Tree’s project, the municipality of Chekka will be breaking Mexico’s record of their 28-meter-high Christmas tree made of 98,000 plastic bottles.
Lebanon’s tree will contain 120,000 plastic bottles and will be between 27 or 29 meters in height.
This project was planned by Caroline Chaptini, in cooperation with the municipality and with the help of the Scouts of Lebanon Mar Maroun, Chekka Regiment, and the Orthodox Youth Movement in the town.
Caroline is a Lebanese mother who wanted to find a creative and environmental way to get rid of her plastic water bottles.
But, she didn’t want them to go to waste, especially with plastic dangers to the environment. She started using them at first to make a small and creative Christmas tree before she decided to go bigger.
Her campaign, جمعوها ماتكبوها (Collect Them Don’t Waste Them)is undertaken with the hope of collecting, from anyone who is willing to donate, 120,000 small plastic bottles for the Christmas tree. Right now the number of bottles is at 105,000, so Caroline is almost there!
The idea was presented to a number of municipalities and the project was settled in Chekka, which has already an iron tree model from last year, so the cost is lower.
After the end of the holidays, all the empty bottles will be given to the new sorting factory in Amioun (Koura), which goes back to the Lebanese Red Cross.
The municipality is now working to provide lighting for the tree planned to be inaugurated on December 7. It will be lit on the first day in the colors of the Lebanese flag, to bring joy, holiness, and patriotism to this Lebanese Christmas this year in which the revolution is ongoing.
The largest Christmas tree of plastic bottles is for the purpose of bettering Lebanon’s image and proving that its people can do great things under the tough situations they are facing. Its further goal is promoting a culture of sorting waste directly from the source.
For anyone who would like to contribute to this great and beneficial Lebanese project, you can contact the people involved to donate your plastic water bottles on this site: Jam3ouwa Mat Kebouwa.