Lebanon garbage crisis in cartoons

The crisis over Lebanon’s waste collection has been parodied in Lebanese newspapers and on social media. Cartoons, some with a political message, show how the event is being seen by an exasperated population. Here is a selection of some of the treatments.

‘Absence of the state’ – An-Nahar newspaper

The image on the right shows sandbags in 1975, the year that Lebanon’s Civil War broke out. On the left, the same scene, only with rubbish sacks.

Time-bomb – Al-Joumhouria newspaper

Cartoon depicting a rubbish bag with a lit fuse as a bomb ready to go off.

Cartoon from Lebanese Christian Al-Joumhouria newspaper depicting a trash bag with a lit up wick

“The solution lies in sorting rubbish” – Al-Joumhouria

Green bin: “Political waste”; Yellow: “Terrorist waste”; Red: “Sectarian waste”

Cartoon from Al-Joumhouria newspaper depicting a man standing in front of three rubbish bins

Ad-Dabbour magazine

Woman: “You didn’t tell me where you live… ”

Man-sized rat: “Under your house, in the trash pile”

Reimagined flag

Twitter users have also used images to react to the crisis, including reversioning the national flag by replacing the traditional cedar tree with a pile of waste…

Twitter image depicting the flag of the Lebanon with the tree in the middle replaced by a pile of trash

… a green refuse sack…

Twitter image depicting the flag of the Lebanon with the tree in the middle replaced by a green trash bag

… and a giant nose

Twitter image depicting the flag of the Lebanon with the tree in the middle replaced by a green contour of a nose

BBC