HASAN SHAABAN/REUTERS

Article Options

Presentation View
Teaching Resources

River of Trash

September 19, 2016
By Hanneke Weitering
JIM MCMAHON/MAPMAN®

Last year, the city of Beirut, Lebanon, shut down its only landfill, which was filled to capacity. With nowhere to put their trash, citizens began leaving it on sidewalks. The junk eventually spilled onto roadways, forming what look like rivers of rubbish.

The government closed the city’s landfill after people complained about its putrid odor. Now, about 2 billion kilograms (4.4 billion pounds) of garbage stink up the streets and block roads and  sidewalks instead. And it’s only getting worse—locals add about  2.7 million kg (6 million lbs) of rubbish each day.

“There’s so much trash that it resembles mountains,” says Sahar Atrache, who lives in Lebanon and works as an analyst with an organization called the International Crisis Group.

AMER GHAZZAL/REX/ SHUTTERSTOCK

TOWERING JUNK: In some places in Beirut, garbage is piled high above people’s heads.

The garbage could make people sick. To get rid of their trash, some residents have resorted to  burning it in the streets. This pollutes the air and may cause respiratory illnesses, like allergies and asthma, which affect the lungs and airways. Rotting food also attracts flies, rodents, and mosquitoes that can transmit life-threatening diseases, such as dengue and malaria.

Lebanon’s government recently reopened the original landfill to try to fit in more garbage. Two new dumps will replace it in the next four years—which isn’t soon enough, says Atrache. 

“This is just a temporary solution, and it won’t solve the problem,” she says. Those dumps will eventually overflow too. The government has to also implement recycling and composting to end Lebanon’s trash crisis, says Atrache.

Gross Out
Text-to-Speech