The long goodbye

As could have been expected, chaos is ensuing. While the situation is not as dire as it was in the hectic summer of 2015 – when protests raged and trash burned on the streets of the capital and its environs – waste in Lebanon is still far from well-managed. One full year after Tammam Salam’s government approved a four-year trash plan covering Beirut and most of Mount Lebanon, it remains only partially implemented. And the new government seems in no rush to address the country’s lingering waste crisis. A ministerial committee dedicated to the issue met only once (in early March), according to news reports. Two sources at the meeting (and a representative of a third) ignored requests for information as to which ministry would take the lead in the new cabinet. From Naameh to the sea For more than 20 years, most of Lebanon’s garbage (50 percent, according to