How Atlanta-Space Mosques Are Slicing Meals Waste Throughout Ramadan

This story was initially printed by 285 South, a newsroom devoted to Metro Atlanta’s rising immigrant and refugee communities, and shared by Grist.

One night in early March, Nina Ansari frowns as she picks up an untouched plate of rice left on the ground of the masjid she attends close to her residence in Stone Mountain. “Would anybody prefer to take this?” she asks a gaggle of ladies standing close by. When nobody responds, she picks it up. Her arms are already filled with the pizza and curry leftovers that her youngsters didn’t end. If she doesn’t take the rice residence, it is going to be thrown out. “There’s quite a lot of waste that occurs throughout Ramadan,” says Nina, 38, who grew up in Georgia.

Through the Muslim holy month — a time of non secular rejuvenation by way of elevated prayer and daylight fasting — masjids might serve lots of of holiday makers for iftar, the sundown meal that marks the breaking of the quick. Some additionally serve a meal within the predawn hours, suhoor, earlier than congregants begin their quick.

That every one can add as much as quite a lot of trash, although. At mosques in Atlanta and elsewhere, it’s not unusual to seek out rubbish cans packed to the highest by the top of the night time, with some plates and plastic water bottles nonetheless half full.

“It’s simply not acceptable for us,” says Nina. “My household is acutely aware of water and meals conservation. We eat leftovers — we aren’t losing or being snooty about losing.”

She’s not the one one involved about the issue. This yr, greater than two dozen Atlanta-area masjids or Islamic teams are planning environmentally pleasant “zero-waste iftars,” aiming to chop down on the quantity of discarded meals, disposable plates, and water bottles. Meals waste is a world and nationwide dilemma — within the U.S., nearly 40 % of the meals provide results in the landfill. However the trash generated throughout the holy month instantly conflicts with a non secular mandate to not be wasteful, says Marium Masud, who attends Marietta’s Masjid Al Furqan West Cobb Islamic Heart: “We’re known as to be stewards of the Earth. There’s a saying from the Prophet Muhammad that the entire Earth is a masjid. So it’s as much as us to maintain it clear, identical to we hold our masjids clear.”

Tasnim Shamma through Grist

Masud is a part of a “inexperienced workforce” of 17 volunteers that Al Furqan established to assist deal with the issue. This previous yr, Al Furqan’s inexperienced workforce targeted on one factor: banning plastic water bottles. Prior to now, the masjid threw away practically 300 plastic bottles each night time — however this yr, hardly any. To organize for Ramadan, the workforce added water filling stations, introduced in reusable five-gallon water bottles, and had their Cub Scout packs promote recycled aluminum bottles to group members for $10 every. Additionally they accepted donations to provide out water bottles free of charge to anybody who couldn’t afford them.

On March 19, Al Furqan — the place 200 to 250 individuals come for iftars every weeknight — will host its first “zero-waste iftar” in partnership with Georgia Interfaith Energy and Mild, or GIPL, a nonprofit that works with non secular teams on environmental justice. The group supplies coaching, workshops, and grants for reusable or compostable plates and cutlery. On the finish of the iftar dinner, GIPL additionally covers the price of sending the surplus to the Atlanta nonprofit CHaRM, which composts meals waste and processes hard-to-recycle objects.

Al Furqan’s zero-waste iftar is only one of 24 zero-waste iftars deliberate throughout Atlanta-area Islamic facilities this Ramadan. At the least 15 now have devoted inexperienced groups. That’s a giant enhance from 2023, when there was just one masjid with a GIPL-certified inexperienced workforce: Roswell Neighborhood Masjid, or RCM. RCM, which hosts weekly zero-waste iftar dinners each Saturday, signed a contract with Atlanta-based Goodr in mid-January to deal with its composting and supply meals waste restoration companies year-round.

Monitoring trash

At Masjid Fatimah in Stone Mountain, Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed helps direct trash visitors throughout Ramadan. He sits in a folding chair for hours every night time telling male congregants the place to place the recycling, trash, and compost. About 150 individuals attend their iftar dinners every night time.

“Individuals waste a lot meals. There are half-eaten plates. Generally the complete plate. And since they don’t need me to see what they’re throwing away, they take one other plate to cowl it,” Rasheed says. “I see you! Generally I inform them, once you’re grabbing meals, get a smaller portion. The meals is there. I collected quite a lot of bread the previous two days as a result of individuals didn’t prefer it and have been making an attempt to throw it away.” (Some native masjids like Masjid Fatimah are working to cut back meals waste by having volunteers portion out plates earlier than handing them out to attendees — who are inclined to pile meals on their very own plates after fasting all day lengthy.)

Courtesy of Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed through Grist

Decreasing waste isn’t simply aligned with non secular rules — there’s additionally a monetary incentive. Rasheed estimates that his masjid has saved practically $1,000 to this point as a result of it has not wanted to name Gwinnett County to choose up extra trash: As an alternative of 5 luggage each night time, there’s now just one.

Masjid Fatimah nonetheless supplies congregants with plastic water bottles. However this yr, it’s reducing down on the quantity of its recycling by putting everlasting markers with directions on neon-green poster boards close to the free bottles. “I put up a message and on daily basis I remind individuals: ‘Label your bottle, put your preliminary,’” says Rasheed, calling this his private pilot undertaking. Once they’re performed consuming, he reminds individuals to take away the caps from their bottles and crush them in order that they’ll take up much less house within the trash.

On the finish of the night time, he types by way of the compost bin and trash to deliver residence what he can so as to add to his compost pile and feed his 4 chickens and purple wiggler worms. Rasheed, who grew up gardening in Hyderabad, India, spends two hours a day working along with his beehives and tending to his yard permaculture setup after he returns residence from his job as a biologist on the CDC; his backyard supplies lots of of kilos of produce every year for his household of 4. On the masjid, he reveals different gardeners how one can use the pizza bins left over from Ramadan iftars to create simple backyard plots and scale back time spent pulling weeds. He says extra congregants are following his instance and bringing scraps residence to feed their yard chickens as properly.

‘Khalifas’ of the earth, or inexperienced groups

Ayesha Abid is this system coordinator for Georgia Interfaith Energy and Mild. Informally, she calls herself the Muslim organizer for the nonprofit, and has been working to extend the variety of Muslim organizations embracing recycling and decreasing vitality use and waste since she joined in 2023. “It’s arduous to say for certain, since we’re within the Bible Belt and we’ve got extra church buildings, however we’ve got about 150 inexperienced groups [statewide],” Abid says, explaining that this consists of groups throughout all non secular homes of worship. “If there are about 100 masjids and 15 have inexperienced groups, I don’t assume that’s a foul illustration.”

Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam in East Atlanta is composting for the primary time this yr, and obtained a grant from GIPL for its zero-waste iftar. The masjid, which opened in 1958, is the biggest and oldest Islamic group heart in metro Atlanta.

Courtesy of Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed through Grist

“It isn’t that costly to do composting,” Abid says. “What’s costly is manpower or volunteers. The most important factor I used to be listening to was ‘I don’t have volunteers to take it to CHaRM.’ There was a lady at [Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam] who simply took six to eight luggage of compost/recyclable waste in her van. You want group members prepared to step up to do this. I believe the ladies locally are uplifting this probably the most.”

Abid says East Cobb Islamic Heart, Al Furqan West Cobb Islamic Heart, and Roswell Neighborhood Masjid have all known as to get rid of single-use plastic bottles and encourage individuals to deliver their very own tupperware to take residence meals so it isn’t thrown out.

“I grew up in Georgia and going to masjids, my most vital reminiscence of Ramadan is seeing aunties overlook which water bottle is theirs and getting a brand new one and letting complete bottles of water go to waste,” Abid says. “Volunteers are drained after fasting all day and don’t have vitality to empty it into gardens. Muslims are alleged to be ‘khalifas’ [stewards] of the Earth, particularly throughout Ramadan, and I may by no means make sense of the waste. This disconnect has at all times stood out to me. Lots of people query it however don’t care about it. However we’re working to repair that.”