Lebanese Kick up Stink over Smell Fix for Garbage Woes

Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)
Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)
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Lebanese Kick up Stink over Smell Fix for Garbage Woes

Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)
Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)

Sitting at a plastic table outside her flatbread sandwich shop in the Lebanese capital, Nadime Yazbeck says she wishes the government would deal with the stench from the local trash dump.

"They really need to find a solution to these smells," said the 66-year-old Beirut resident, in a spotless white t-shirt and hair net.

Four years after a garbage crisis sparked political protests in Lebanon, the stench of trash is back and government plans to quell the smell have only triggered demands for better waste management, said AFP.

In Yazbeck's neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud, a seaside landfill that reopened to solve the 2015 crisis will be full by the end of the summer.

Near the airport, another overwhelmed landfill is to start refusing waste from neighboring areas in protest.

On and off for more than a year, the acrid smell of decomposing refuse has wafted into homes and businesses in the capital.

Even kilometers away from landfills, residents have raced to close windows to keep out the stink.

Visitors to the tiny Mediterranean nation have been welcomed off flights by unpleasant odors drifting over the airport.

In June, Lebanon's environment ministry said it had asked an expert to look into the matter and help neutralize the smells.

Lebanese-French agronomy engineer Aime Menassa determined causes of the stench to include household waste, "badly stabilized compost", and sewage.

His report unleashed a wave of sarcasm online over a perceived outsider stating the obvious.

"Isn't there a Lebanese who can smell it?" one person asked on Twitter.

Odor suppression

Beyond being unpleasant, the smells also present potential health hazards.

This winter, researchers at the American University of Beirut measured the rate of hydrogen sulphide, a smelly gas produced by landfills, in the air in Bourj Hammoud.

Michele Citton, a waste and water expert at AUB, said the levels of the gas -- which has been correlated with possible negative health effects -- were higher than expected.

A 2018 study in northern China found children living near a landfill were more likely to have deficient immunity and impaired lung function, the latter strongly related to hydrogen sulphide.

But odor suppression is not a sustainable solution, Citton said.

"What these smells are saying to the world and to the community in Beirut is basically that there is a deep need to find alternative methods to solid waste management in Lebanon."

Multi-confessional Lebanon has been rocked by political crises in recent years, especially since the 2011 outbreak of war in neighboring Syria.

In 2015, a landfill closure caused trash to pile up in the streets, sparking protests against political leaders, including under the cry "You Stink".

The demonstrations have since died down, but mistrust in the ruling class -- that includes former warlords during the 1975-1990 civil conflict -- still runs high.

Menassa insists his offer to treat the smell is only meant to be a temporary solution, said AFP.

Under his plan, a "biodegradable" solution would be sprayed onto the surface or spread through mist into the air at three sites across the capital, he said.

Transforming smelly gas into minerals, the solution would clean garbage trucks traveling in and out of two sorting stations, and lessen the stench from the composting site near Bourj Hammoud.

Temporary solution?

But "the idea is not to mist forever", he said, of the odor-tackling practice that needs to be maintained 24/7 to be effective.

"The solution is selective rubbish collection... to avoid having to have to bury these huge volumes in the final landfill."

Experts say half of Lebanon's waste is organic, and could be better composted if separated out from recyclables at the household level.

Environment Minister Fady Jreissati, who came into office in January, says only eight percent of Lebanon's rubbish is recycled.

His plan for the next two years includes trying to encourage better rubbish sorting, and building a new composting plant near the airport by next spring, he told July's edition of economic magazine Le Commerce du Levant.

He also said a "credible option" would be to widen the Bourj Hammoud landfill -- but that would mean destroying an adjacent fishing port.

Activists, meanwhile, have protested plans to open incinerators in Beirut, which they fear will be badly managed and further pollute the atmosphere.

And as grey smog clings to the skyline, others have questioned the ministry halting air quality monitors due to budget cuts.

Claude Jabre, a You Stink activist who lives in Bourj Hammoud, denounced what he saw as vested business interests and a lack of political will to find alternative solutions.

"We have the energy and the expertise to create what's called a circular economy" aimed at minimizing waste, he said.

"Why can't we make profit in a way that doesn't damage the environment?"



Fireworks, Warplanes and Axes: How France Celebrates Bastille Day

France's President Emmanuel Macron (center-L) and France's Chief of the Defense Staff General Thierry Bukhard (center-R) and French Military Governor of Paris (GMP) Loic Mizon (center-Top) review troops as they stand in the command car flanked by France's mounted Republican Guard (Guarde Republicaine) during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron (center-L) and France's Chief of the Defense Staff General Thierry Bukhard (center-R) and French Military Governor of Paris (GMP) Loic Mizon (center-Top) review troops as they stand in the command car flanked by France's mounted Republican Guard (Guarde Republicaine) during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
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Fireworks, Warplanes and Axes: How France Celebrates Bastille Day

France's President Emmanuel Macron (center-L) and France's Chief of the Defense Staff General Thierry Bukhard (center-R) and French Military Governor of Paris (GMP) Loic Mizon (center-Top) review troops as they stand in the command car flanked by France's mounted Republican Guard (Guarde Republicaine) during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron (center-L) and France's Chief of the Defense Staff General Thierry Bukhard (center-R) and French Military Governor of Paris (GMP) Loic Mizon (center-Top) review troops as they stand in the command car flanked by France's mounted Republican Guard (Guarde Republicaine) during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Swooping warplanes, axe-carrying warriors, a drone light show over the Eiffel Tower and fireworks in nearly every French town — it must be Bastille Day.

France celebrated its biggest holiday Monday with 7,000 people marching, on horseback or riding armored vehicles along the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees, the most iconic avenue in Paris. And there are plans for partying and pageantry around the country, said The Associated Press.

Why Bastille Day is a big deal

Parisians stormed the Bastille fortress and prison on July 14, 1789, a spark for the French Revolution that overthrew the monarchy. In the ensuing two centuries, France saw Napoleon’s empire rise and fall, more uprisings and two world wars before settling into today’s Fifth Republic, established in 1958.

Bastille Day has become a central moment for modern France, celebrating democratic freedoms and national pride, a mélange of revolutionary spirit and military prowess.

The Paris parade beneath the Arc de Triomphe so impressed visiting US President Donald Trump in 2017 that it inspired him to stage his own parade this year.

What stood out

The spectacle began on the ground, with French President Emmanuel Macron reviewing the troops and relighting the eternal flame beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

Two riders fell from their horses near the end of the parade, and it was unclear whether anyone was hurt. Such incidents happen occasionally at the annual event.

Each parade uniform has a touch of symbolism. The contingent from the French Foreign Legion was eye-catching, its bearded troops wearing leather aprons and carrying axes, a reference to their original role as route clearers for advancing armies.

The Paris event included flyovers by fighter jets, trailing red, white and blue smoke. Then the evening sees a drone light show and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower that has gotten more elaborate every year.

What’s special about this year

Every year, France hosts a special guest for Bastille Day, and this year it’s Indonesia, with President Prabowo Subianto representing the world’s largest Muslim country, which also a major Asian economic and military player.

Indonesian troops, including 200 traditional drummers, marched in Monday’s parade, and Indonesia is expected to confirm new purchases of Rafale fighter jets and other French military equipment during the visit. Prabowo, who was accused of rights abuses under Indonesia's prior dictatorship, will be treated to a special holiday dinner at the Elysée Palace.

“For us as Indonesian people, this is a very important and historic military and diplomatic collaboration,'' the commander of the Indonesian military delegation, Brig. Gen. Ferry Irawan, told The Associated Press.

Finnish troops serving in the UN force in Lebanon, and Belgian and Luxembourg troops serving in a NATO force in Romania also paraded through Paris, reflecting the increasingly international nature of the event.

Among the dignitaries invited to watch will be Fousseynou Samba Cissé, who rescued two babies from a burning apartment earlier this month and received a last-minute invitation in a phone call from Macron himself.

‘’I wasn't expecting that call,'' he told online media Brut. ‘’I feel pride.''

What’s the geopolitical backdrop

Beyond the military spectacle in Paris are growing concerns about an uncertain world. On the eve Bastille Day, Macron announced 6.5 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in extra French military spending in the next two years because of new threats ranging from Russia to terrorism and online attacks. The French leader called for intensified efforts to protect Europe and support for Ukraine.

‘’Since 1945, our freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,″ Macron said. ’’We are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.″

Security was exceptionally tight around Paris ahead of and during the parade.

What else happens on Bastille Day

It’s a period when France bestows special awards — including the most prestigious, the Legion of Honor — on notable people. This year's recipients include Gisèle Pelicot, who became a global hero to victims of sexual violence during a four-month trial in which her husband and dozens of men were convicted of sexually assaulting her while she was drugged unconscious.

Others earning the honor are Yvette Levy, a Holocaust survivor and French Resistance fighter, and musician Pharrell Williams, designer for Louis Vuitton.

Bastille Day is also a time for family gatherings, firefighters' balls and rural festivals around France.