Adnan Melki examines Lebanon’s recurring waste crisis as contracts with waste collection companies approach their expiration at the end of 2026. At the same time, major landfills such as Costa Brava are nearing their maximum capacity. Melki looks back at the history of waste management in Lebanon since the 1980s. Over the years, successive emergency plans were introduced to deal with the crisis. However, these temporary measures gradually became permanent. Extensions and short-term solutions replaced a long-term strategy.
The crisis reached a major turning point in 2015 with the Naameh landfill crisis.According to ministerial committees at the time, Lebanon was spending around $100 million every year on waste treatment and landfilling. Yet the country still lacked an effective and sustainable waste management system.
For Melki, the problem goes beyond landfills. He points to Lebanon’s consumer-driven economy and the lack of waste separation at the source. Each person in Lebanon produces around one kilogram of waste per day. Much of this waste is mixed, including organic, solid and medical waste.
As a result, millions of tons of waste continue to accumulate. Lebanon has yet to establish a long-term solution capable of dealing with this growing volume of waste. Melki also criticizes the way responsibility for waste management has been placed on municipalities.
Municipalities are expected to manage waste collection and cover much of the related costs. However, they receive limited central support from the Ministries of Environment and Interior.
At the same time, municipal revenues are being drained by debt and payments to private contractors. This situation is made worse by a lack of transparency.
According to Melki, simply expanding landfills or relying on random incineration is not a sustainable solution. He also warns against practices that violate the Barcelona Convention, which aims to protect the Mediterranean Sea.
Instead, he calls for genuine decentralization and waste separation at the source. He also stresses the need to reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.
These measures should form part of a long-term waste management strategy. Such a strategy would help protect public health, the environment and public funds. With waste collection contracts set to expire at the end of 2026, Lebanon faces a crucial question: What happens next?
