Garbage has begun to pile up again across Beirut and Mount Lebanon after garbage truck drivers went on strike Tuesday to demand to know the fate of their jobs with expiration of Sukleen's contract.
Pugnant odors filled the air in the capital and its densely populated suburbs due to the uncollected garbage left to cook in the sun.
Sukleen workers had staged a sit-in Tuesday inside the company’s headquarters in Beirut, refusing to work until they know the fate of their jobs.
The continuation of the strike comes despite a decision by the Cabinet Tuesday that rejected the results of the winning bids, which would have brought new companies to manage the country’s waste sector.
However, the managers of two companies who won the bid for northern Mount Lebanon held a press conference later Tuesday in which they accused the government of canceling the bids to keep Sukleen in charge.
They said Environment Minister Mohammed Machnouk “lied” about the prices and exaggerated them to make them seem very high compared to those charged by Sukleen.
The garbage crisis began after the closure of the controversial Naameh landfill on July 17, which has taken in more than 15 million tons of trash since its 1998 opening. It was originally opened to take two million tons of waste.
