Record inflation hits even Lebanon’s garbage

Record inflation hits even Lebanon’s garbage

‘Trash just isn’t like it used to be’

BY NABIH BULOS

BEIRUT —  Rolling to a stop on his overladen scooter, Shaher Hassan awkwardly balanced five bags and a carton full of cans, plastic bottles and other recyclables mined from the trash that day. In an unpaved alleyway in Lebanon’s capital, he handed the load off to another young man, who took it inside the cramped apartment the two of them shared with five other people — one room for sleeping, the other for mounds of reclaimed refuse.