National Waste Governance and Cost Recovery Framework

Lebanon has no integrated national plan for solid waste, and the resulting fragmentation shows in the numbers: despite numerous reduce-reuse-recycle initiatives, 20 percent of waste is recovered, 44 percent reaches sanitary landfills and 36 percent goes to open, frequently burnt dumpsites.

Libanconsult prepared the national governance and cost recovery frameworks between 2022 and 2024 for UNDP, supporting the Ministry of Environment and UNDP in moving from fragmented projects to a financially sustainable national system.

The work assessed existing governance and financing arrangements, designed a national cost recovery framework calibrated to Lebanese conditions, designed a governance framework allocating institutional responsibilities, and set out implementation pathways across ministries, service providers and municipalities.

Lebanon has a coherent national basis for governance and cost recovery in municipal waste - the precondition for any durable improvement in recovery rates and for moving away from open dumping.