Sparked outrage has metastasized in Lebanon over the growing crisis of overflowing trash flooding the streets, due to horrible planning and overall shoddy government behavior. The land fill that used to hold the country’s garbage has been filled to the brim. With an initial plan of holding 2 million tons in the Naameh landfill, thanks to what can only be called epic procrastination it now holds over 15 million tons of trash.
The Lebanese however, decided not to stand for such outrage, taking to the streets to protest the living conditions that are simply unacceptable. Not stopping there, what started as a movement to protest the waste management – or lack thereof – in the country has quickly shifted to a revolt against an entire system.
Now, reading the news about the escalating situation in Lebanon must make us think about ourselves as a nation, because now people have to ask themselves the question: is trash really that big of a deal?
Sure, we have trash on almost every corner of every street in Egypt. In that department, all neighborhoods are equal. Whether you live in a nice neighborhood or not, you will always see trash. If there’s a trash bin for the street, we are positive it’s left to overflow and people continue to throw garbage around it. This prompts some people to completely ignore said trash bins and wait for the government to take care of the problem. While others try to make things better by getting more trash bins, only for those as well to overflow.
Knowing how much of a big deal it is, and after shoving the guy that says “this is not the time to be worrying about such trivial things” off a rooftop, we have to take a close analytical look at our lifestyle as Egyptians. The traditional street scenery in all our streets is morbid grey accessorized by the colorful chaos of our trash.
Now, being the Egyptians that we are, we always like looking on the bright side. We have an incredible talent to adapt. However, our streets have become so filled with trash that walking down the street has turned into an actual game of the floor is lava, only the lava is trash and the floor is, well, floor.
Our amazing talent for innovation has led us to find a genius use for recycle bin dumpsters, something that no one has thought of before: using them as anything but recycle bin dumpster. You want a hipster stroller for your baby? Try a recycle bin dumpster! Or if you want to be really new age-y, you can use it to spice us your place’s Feng Shui, but we’ll be damned if we use recycle bins to actually recycle!
Recycling aside; this isn’t the way we get rid of trash. Instead of recycling, we burn it! Covering the city with a black, sooty cloud of smoke, we rid ourselves of the perfectly recyclable matter. If you thought trash smelled awful, you should smell burned trash.
The saddest part is that we can never fix things the way the Lebanese are doing. This is mostly due to how our ability to adapt is freakishly incredible, our sense of smell has completely blocked what our streets must smell like and locked away all the disgusting odors in our subconscious. That’s why people always walk around with that sad look on their face; they’re subconsciously suffocated by all those smells.
