Few days ago, I was arguing that “we don’t need McKinsey to clear garbage from the streets and recycle, we need competent ministers who are convinced that burning garbage is bad for our health and dumping garbage in the sea is a crime” and I’m just reading now that the Lebanese Cabinet has approved a plan to manage the solid waste crisis, which involves the expansion of the Costa Brava landfill near Beirut!

Instead of closing the Costa Brava landfill once and for all, and keeping garbage away from the sea, they’re planning to expand both the Costa & the Tripoli landfill. They’re claiming that “a new reprocessing plant will be established at Costa Brava and the sorting plants in Amrusiya and Karantina will be improved” but the landfills will only be getting bigger until these are put in place.

It’s quite unbelievable that an Environment minister would propose such a plan, especially after what we’ve been going through since 2015. We’re ruining our coast and our mountains and instead of saving whatever is left, we’re expanding the landfills!!

On another note, the Lebanese Minister of Health, Ghassan Hasbani, issued an order calling on district physicians to “inspect municipal garbage dumps and immediately take appropriate measures if any violation is found, and stress the fact that they should not be burnt” in light of the serious health risks associated with these practices according to the HRW Press, but I’m not sure how this will help as garbage will end up in a way or another burned or buried in the sea.