Sunday marked the end of a pretty stinky week for Lebanon, where days-old garbage cluttered the streets and the smell of rotting food and burning plastic wafted delightfully into the nostrils of innocent passersby.
That's right. For the last week, Lebanon's capital Beirut has been covered with bags, and boxes and dumpsters full of trash.
In case you haven't been following this saga, the trouble started last Sunday, when workers from Sukleen sanitation company in Beirut and Mount Lebanon announced they would stop collecting garbage as of 9 pm, the Daily Star reported, and would not resume until a ridiculously overfilled Naameh landfill was retired and a new space was chosen.
This also seems like a good time to mention that when we say 'ridiculously overfilled' we mean that over 15 million tons of trash had been piled into a landfill that was originally slated to hold 2 million tons. Yeesh.
As the Daily Star reported last Sunday, Sukleen workers weren't going to pick up trash anymore, but they were going to keep on sweeping the streets. But as it turned out that last promise was neither necessary nor possible, really, because for the next six days bags of trash began to fill the streets and ooze from the dumpsters until, well, people started doing this.
RT. Rogue morons are going around #Beirut burning trash. Immediately call 175 if you see trash burning. #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/z0oVHd7wAm
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) July 22, 2015
For reasons that seem obvious enough, burning the trash made things even worse (think plastic fumes, chemical burnings, you get the picture).
The saga ended Saturday after massive protests rocked the capital.
We collected a series of some of the trashiest photos from the week in case you missed them and because, you know, piles of trash are good reminders of how bad we are at recycling sometimes. Images via Twitter.
Amidst all the trash that's laying all around us, I present to you: Traoushe and Baalbags. #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/QnRwVBoMYB
— Nader Dagher (@naderdagher) July 22, 2015
