Yalla Return: Exchange Your Recyclables For Supermarket Vouchers!

An incredible new initiative launched by PepsiCo and the local social enterprise Nadeera is promoting recycling by providing financial incentives for residents in Lebanon.

The Yalla Return program has landed in Lebanon at a time when the excruciating financial crisis plunged more than half the population into poverty. This crisis has also sadly put various environmental initiatives on the back-burner as many Lebanese struggle to make ends meet. Luckily, Yalla Return provides an innovative way to help both the environment and those struggling with food security.

Here’s how it works:



– Take your clean and sorted recyclable items (plastics and aluminum) and head to the drop off spots in either Tareek el Jdeedeh (near Safsouf sweets) or Mar Mikhael (at Nusaned Hub near Starbucks)

– After your recyclables are processed, you will receive Return credits on your account depending on the weight of your drop-off

– You can then exchange your credits for supermarket vouchers from Al Makhazen-COOP or donate them to selected charities.

For more details on how it works, check out this video below:


Programs like these not only provide financial incentives for recycling and sorting, they also as ensure that the money generated gets spent on food and necessities. Moreover, considering Lebanon’s repeated waste crises, projects like these are a first step in reducing the amount of trash we as a society produce.

Kudos to PepsiCo and Nadeera for this incredible initiative, and we hope others follow suit!