Kataeb Says Trash Crisis Exposes 'Mafia Controlling Country', Urges Sorting Plants

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The Kataeb Party said Monday that the renewed waste collection crisis “exposes anew the corruption mafia that is controlling the country,” calling for the creation of waste sorting and treatment plants and the temporary storage of the accumulating garbage in non-residential areas.

“The crime of leaving garbage in the streets exposes anew the corruption mafia that is controlling the country, which is asking citizens to choose between fast death and slow death,” the party's political bureau said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

“In light of the outcome of the Finance Parliamentary Committee meeting, in which the conferees confirmed that only less than 10% of waste is being sorted and around 90% is being land-filled, Kataeb has invited the relevant municipalities and municipal unions to a meeting that will be held on Wednesday to explore their viewpoints and proposed solutions,” it added.

“The Kataeb Party reiterates that the appropriate solution to this crisis would to immediately embark on setting up waste sorting and management plants in every district, a process that requires six months to be finalized,” the party suggested.

“Meanwhile, the government must find a temporary site for storing the the garbage away from the residential areas pending the beginning of the decentralized waste management process,” it said.

A deal to transport garbage from the streets of Metn, Keserwan and parts of the capital Beirut went to a halt recently due to the closure of the Bourj Hammoud storage location by the municipality.

Early in August, Kataeb Party students forced the suspension of works aimed at setting up a landfill at the site, demanding a halt to what they called “the project of land-filling the sea with garbage on Metn's coast.” They have been staging a sit-in outside the site for several weeks now.

Lebanon's unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the central Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The months-long crisis, which sparked protests against the entire political class, saw streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage.

The cabinet eventually decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists.

A landfill’s location in the Chouf and Aley areas would be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said at the time.

Environmentalists and civil society activists have long called for an eco-friendly solution to the garbage crisis that involves more recycling and composting to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills as well as a bigger role for municipalities.

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