Landfills in greater Beirut area: A protracted part of municipal solid waste management

Abstract

Municipal solid waste management in Lebanon is problematic. The vast majority of municipalities rely on open dumping and open burning. In Beirut and its surrounding area Mount Lebanon, waste management is centralized. By a governmental decision, waste is dumped in two landfills: Bourj Hammoud-Jdeideh and Costa Brava. They are alternative to the Naameh landfill which operated for 17 years. Further to Beirut explosion in August 4th, 2020, all the wastes entering the landfills became unsorted and untreated. This decreased the lifetime of the landfills which required expanding new cells. Due to the economic crisis, companies are not participating in the waste management tenders launched. It is feared that the solid waste crisis manifested by wastes piling up on the streets will happen again after similarly to the events in 2015 and in 1997. Since waste collected within Greater Beirut area is not sorted, composted, and recycled, hope is individual awareness and private companies expand to reduce the landfilled waste to delay or halt the awaited waste crisis in late 2024. The objective of this paper is to review the waste management issue to urge finding new alternatives the soonest possible to prevent great environmental damage with its associated health impacts.