In Lebanon’s Baalbek region, where the company was founded, Garbaliser regularly sells its patented liquid fertiliser to over 400 clients. It has been shown to produce produce that is both cleaner and more productive than chemical fertilisers. With plans to expand to Jordan and the GCC, the company is expanding to the UAE market in 2024 after securing funding from Shark Tank Dubai and a partnership in the UAE.
Garbaliser was created in 2020 by sisters Hanan and Zeinab Ismail. When the COVID-19 lockdown and the Lebanese economic crisis were at their worst, the country’s garbage problem was at an all-time high. The sisters set out to find a solution.
The sisters launched the project with the goal of addressing the trash problem at its root—the trash cans of homes and businesses—by developing a garbage disposal system that allows individuals to separate their waste. Even in light of the political and economic context of the time, they conducted extensive research before concluding that the idea had no merit.
This challenge did not stop the sisters, though, as they learned on the job how to turn bio-waste into compostable organic fertilizer during their experiments with collecting organic waste. However, further research revealed that the reason compost is difficult to use in large-scale farming is because it is in the same state of matter as dirt, making it difficult to mix into irrigation systems. By using their patented innovation, they were able to transform this organic waste into a liquid fertilizer that farmers could add straight to their irrigation systems, making the most of it.
The Ismail sisters rethought their original garbage separator concept with the addition of fertiliser after establishing a small customer base for their product. They began offering their “al-Hadum” (The Digestor) system for sale. It allows customers to separate their organic and non-organic waste, which Garbaliser then collects and turns into fertilizer. Additionally, the customers receive a discount on the liquid fertilizer. Together with Zero Waste, which recycles the non-organic materials gathered, and Dekkanet El-Nes, an organic grocery store where customers can purchase non-packaged food in exchange for reward points, Garbaliser has partnered with two other startups in Lebanon.
