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Lebanon holds breath for deal to export trash abroad

Although officials have announced that Lebanon will export its waste as a solution to the garbage crisis plaguing the country since July, the government has yet to sign contracts with any foreign companies.
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It has been six months since Lebanon's garbage crisis began in July, after the closure of the Naameh landfill and the end of the Lebanese state's contract with Sukleen, the company in charge of transporting the garbage. Still no garbage treatment and storage solution has been found by the Chehayeb Commission, led by Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb since September to address the garbage piling up in the streets.

Instead, the Cabinet announced on Dec. 21 that Lebanon would export the garbage as a temporary solution. But since then, waste still lies in dumps and public fields everywhere in Lebanon, rotting on the ground and being swept about by the winter rains.

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