As Lebanon gets stinkier, most citizens are complaining, a few are protesting, and others are becoming more solution-oriented. The country's flagrant garbage fiasco hasn’t yet been resolved by the government.
Although there was the promise of a “solution,” activists claim nothing has actually been done, and have published footage showing trash dumped in various parts of the country, with many rightly livid that such a so-called-solution is simply putting things out of sight, out of mind, and not solving anything at all.
So yet again, Lebanon's citizens and organizations are taking matters into their own hands for some desperate ingenuity, to create real answers to this dirty disaster. Here are the ones we've heard of:
Self-proclaimed garbage man (in fact, an environmental engineer) Ziad Abichaker is not only famous for his TEDxBeirut talk, professing his love for garbage in the most humorous of ways, he is also a passionate activist that’s been preaching to mostly deaf ears about ecologically sound waste management in Lebanon for years. When the then-impending crisis first came up back in January 2015, he forged a dual-sorting solution under an apparently offensive campaign title that really couldn't be more simple: black bags for organic waste and paper, blue bags for everything else including plastic, metal, glass, etc. At the time they had arranged for scavengers and recycling yard owners to collect the bags, and are currently looking into a similar agreement, but are asking for citizens to hold on to their blue bags for now. This at least cuts down on the trash staying in the streets. The non-political social initiative claims that according to research, two bags for sorting has the highest compliance rates because it's simple, and can get high results from the general public.
The NGO arcenciel – truly a celestial hope for Lebanon – has joined forced with Uber and Live Love Lebanon to pick up your recyclable waste for free until Aug. 4. They began yesterday and have already collected 60kg of plastic and 45kg of paper. It’s easy: select the new UberRECYCLE option in the Uber app and a van will collect your bags, taking them to Arcenciel to be recycled. They’re asking citizens to classify trash according to different colored bags: blue for plastics, black for paper, and pink for metals. After Aug. 4, you can still drop off your garbage at arcenciel yourself. The NGO has had a recycling program for many years, launching an environmental branch in 2003. Its award-winning program consistently raises awareness about waste management, as well as implements sorting, collection and sale of waste to recycling plants.
Similarly, and for a small monthly fee, Zero Waste Act has for years been collecting recyclable trash, helping to recycle over 2,000 tons of waste since its launch. It provides special bins for sorting your trash into: glass and aluminium; plastic; and paper, and will arrange for regular collection from your home or office.