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One evening in early March, Nina Ansari frowns as she picks up an untouched plate of rice left on the floor of the masjid she attends near her home in Stone Mountain. “Would anyone like to take this?” she asks a group of women standing nearby. When no one responds, she picks it up. Her hands are already full of the pizza and curry leftovers that her kids didn’t finish. If she doesn’t take the rice home, it will be thrown out. “There’s a lot of waste that happens during Ramadan,” says Nina, 38, who grew up in Georgia.
During the Muslim holy month—a time of spiritual rejuvenation through increased prayer and daylight fasting—masjids may serve hundreds of visitors for iftar, the sunset meal that marks the breaking of the fast. Some also serve a meal in the predawn hours, suhoor, before congregants start their fast.
That all can add up to a lot of trash, though. At mosques in Atlanta and elsewhere, it’s not uncommon to find garbage cans packed to the top by the end of the night, with some plates and plastic water bottles still half full.
“It’s just not acceptable for us,” says Nina. “My family is conscious of water and food conservation. We eat leftovers—we are not wasting or being snooty about wasting.”
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