My oh my, if only our government was as as effective and brutal when it come to the ongoing garbage crisis as it is when it comes to beating up peaceful protesters and terrorizing citizens and families for demanding the rights they pay exorbitant amounts for… Alas, not with the current group of warlords in powers.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I don’t wanna say I told you so, but I knew the “temporary” disastrous solution that honestly couldn’t possibly be worse would make everyone forget about the garbage. They did forget, and despite the disgusting stench in most parts of the country, not seeing the hundreds of thousands of tons on our sidewalks, streets, rivers, beaches, forests and under our homes made us all forget about the crime of the century against the Lebanese people, worse than what Assad did to us, worse than what Israel did to us and worse even than what the Ottomans inflicted upon us. It’s worse, not just in terms of barbarity and evil, but also because it was done by our own leaders, not an occupying force like all the times mentioned before.

Well, guess what? Remember the uprising so many of you criticized from the comfort of your couch, with your windows closed, AC on and spraying Febreeze as you walk around your own home? Well, it has never been more essential, and I’m not sure if we can muster up the same resolve against such a brutally corrupt and violent government with the likes of Mohamad Machnouk and his apologists, who, I think should be awarded some sort of prize for the thickest skin, and thickest skull, in humanity’s existence. Maybe also an honorable mention as one of the rudest, disrespectful humanoid organisms to every grace this scorched earth we call Lebanon. Perhaps a mosquito net too, so he stops inhaling and swallowing the pests?

In Your Nostrils, In Your Lungs

When was the last time you opened your window while on the highway? If you thought the garbage was bad when mixed with flood water, imagine what it will be like when all the sludge and ooze of the garbage sits in Lebanon’s hot summer sun at 30 degrees C. Dioxins, methane, rats, flies, bacteria and a host of other toxins and parasites have increased many thousand folds over the last few months. You are slowly dying, in the most humiliating way imaginable, with the solutions right there in front of us, but with politicians too greedy to care and too busy calculating how much money they can milk out of us before we all die slow, painful deaths and get buried in the millions of tons of garbage in every nook and cranny in our tiny 10452 square kilometers.

Decentralization, Decentralization, Decentralization

Like I’ve been saying from day one of the crisis, we can’t wait for the government. How can we expect the thugs and crooks behind Sukleen to fix the problem they have created, made worse and continue to propagate till this day?

The Lebanese are resourceful and resilient when it comes to finding solutions to insurmountable problems. Their garbage governments however, are only resourceful and resilient in beating taxpayers up if they dare speak up about not wanting to be murdered slowly under millions of tons of untreated solid waste.

Towns like Anjar, Adma, Bikfaya and many others have already started their local, grassroots initiatives to solve the issue locally. Dozens of new startups and NGOs have been established to recycle, compost and manage the garbage. Our local industry is in dire need of recycled paper, plastic, tin and glass. Our local agriculture sector is in dire need of fertilizers made from composting organic waste. Our sidewalks await the rest of the unredeemable garbage to mix with the cement that will hopefully complete these sidewalks again and make Beirut pedestrian-friendly, not pedestrian-deadly.

Dirt, Dirt, Dirt

We know everyone is corrupt, but it’s rare to find out how that corruption takes place exactly. In a recent meeting I was part of, MP Samy Gemayel revealed to us several ways in which the establishment warlords in sheepskin are trying to take advantage of the situation in the dark, evil rooms of the government and parliament. Below, I will illustrate some of the examples of blatant disregard for the mandate these MPs have already overstayed illegally for years now.

Makab versus Matmar: A makab is a random garbage dump where you just throw the waste, untreated, unsorted, as-is in a place like a forest, valley or urban parking lot. A matmar is a specially prepared piece of remote land, where only 5–20% of the waste that is un-compostable and un-recyclable are sealed and buried in a way that doesn’t allow for any toxins to seep into the soil, groundwater or sea.

A makab is a random garbage dump where you just throw the waste, untreated, unsorted, as-is in a place like a forest, valley or urban parking lot. A matmar is a specially prepared piece of remote land, where only 5–20% of the waste that is un-compostable and un-recyclable are sealed and buried in a way that doesn’t allow for any toxins to seep into the soil, groundwater or sea. Contract periods: Sukleen has been here for more than two decades. They charge us 170–180$ per ton, and only treat 15% of it, with the 85% just ending up in a garbage dump instead of a proper landfill. That means that Sukleen was able to make a LOOOOOOOOT of money, at an extremely low cost to them. A good period for a contract would be 15–20 years, to ensure that the company can cover its operation costs, and make some profit.

Sukleen has been here for more than two decades. They charge us 170–180$ per ton, and only treat 15% of it, with the 85% just ending up in a garbage dump instead of a proper landfill. That means that Sukleen was able to make a LOOOOOOOOT of money, at an extremely low cost to them. A good period for a contract would be 15–20 years, to ensure that the company can cover its operation costs, and make some profit. Finding landfills: It is the government’s job to find a good spot to dispose of the unredeemable waste. If the company is supposed to find it, that automatically means that collusion between that company and the za3eem of the region (political warlord) they are operating in is a no-brainer. This means a LOOOOOOOOT of money to those za3eems without the need to make sure it is sanitary, safe and efficient for taxpayers, just as long as the za3eem’s pockets get replenished by the companies.

After knowing all this, what Nabil El Jisr did in the parliamentary committee for the garbage, was inexcusable and was not the first time politicians play these dirty tricks to try and sabotage any meaningful agreement, or at least ensure that they get handsomely, and illegally, compensated for what is supposed to be one of the very basic services in any civilized society.

After the cabinet decided to set 7 years as the maximum for a contract, which is absurd, given that that is not enough time for the companies to even break even, meaning they will charge us a lot more for the same, bad service we get from Sukleen, just to be able to pay for the machines, trucks, facilities, etc.

Another incomprehensible booby trap they put in, is that it should be the company’s responsibility to find a landfill (which as stated above, is hard without paying off a za3eem). This was not an option that the Kataeb were gonna take, and they vetoed this in the cabinet, which forced Tamam Salam to issue his weak threat of resigning because the “Kataeb weren’t letting him do the biddings”.

Finally, the Kataeb ministers were able to insert a clause in the minsterial decision that stipulates that the government has to find a landfill in case the company with the winning bid, which solves a major corruption loophole in the decision. However, upon making its way to the parliamentary committee, Nabil El Jisr omitted the part that says the government needs to designate the landfill when the winning bidder cannot. He omitted it because he personally felt it wasn’t feasible. This blatant disregard for such an important part of the decision, meant that decision was gutted into something that was truly, utterly the worst thing possible: a company getting just 7 years, and being forced to find their landfill without the government. So, apart from the high costs they need to get up and running, add the cost of the bribes to local politicians, is what made the price of a ton upwards 200–250$, which is even higher than Sukleen’s crushing high prices for subpar service and regular breach of contract (and thuggish behavior that might cost a colleague her eyesight). This is why that second bidding process failed, a carefully orchestrated, illegal breach of the most basic duties of an MP trying to secure ill-gotten funds for his cash-strapped party.

Who the hell is that MP to decide to omit an entire clause in a ministerial decision fought so hard for? This was an obvious, exceptionally rude and audacious attempt to guarantee that companies awarded contracts will be unable to get anything done without bribing the politicians to allow them to use a piece of land on their fiefdoms (remember how Arslan didn’t want the Costa Brava dump reopened? Well, look what a few million can do to persuade a Lebanese politician to sell out his loyal subjects).

Corruption a la Libanaise

Another startlingly horrifying theft of your taxes was made apparent when Bikfaya and its surrounding towns started their own garbage solution initiative. A town near Bikfaya used to get billed for 21 tons a day from Sukleen. In the past couple of months, no more than 6 tons were gathered per day. This means that the municipality there was paying three and a half TIMES what it was actually being picked up by Sukleen. If we price the ton at 170$, that means the municipality should pay around a 1000$ per day. They were paying almost 3600$ a day instead. That’s a 107,000$ a month, or almost 1.3 MILLION dollars a year, and that’s just one town among many, many, many others where no one can know for sure how many phantom garbage tons were billed and paid for by your taxes over the past two decades.

A ton, maybe two extra might seem like negligence or minor crime, but when it’s more than 3.5 times the actual amount, that is literally, the perfect crime to an unsuspecting victim that doesn’t know any better.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

There are so LOT more reports and evidence of the blatant corruption when it comes to the garbage crisis, but I think the above is enough for one post. I want you guys to enjoy your Easter celebrations and Labor Day in peace. I promise to keep publishing these stories though, and to feature more towns which are solving the garbage crisis themselves, in hopes that will be the entrance to a more decentrallized Lebanon where it becomes harder to be as corrupt as our politicians have been for decade after decade.

On that note, make sure you vote in your next municipal elections. Those municipalities can do a lot in terms of taking the initiative and solving the garbage crisis without the sabotaged theatrical displays of corrupt bidding processes and evil corporations like Sukleen. And make sure to keep up the pressure, and take the initiative in your communities, no matter how much you think you can’t change the current situation. You can, many people already are, and we are here to help with that!