06 August 2015
BEIRUT: The strictures of international law will bind Lebanon to follow judicious but costly waste management practices should the country find a partner ready to receive its garbage, experts say. As a party to the Basel Convention, a United Nations accord, Lebanon will have to follow narrow guidelines that regulate how countries trade hazardous waste.
Following talks with the German ambassador last week, Economy Minister Alain Hakim announced that a deal could be reached to export a portion of Lebanons garbage to the northern European nation. Leaders across the political spectrum are counting on such an agreement to buy them some short-term relief from the ongoing trash crisis. Beirut has been gathering its trash in an exposed lot in Karantina since July 28, after the citys main landfill exceeded capacity. The lot will probably run out of space within days.
There is a precedent to exporting garbage, said Raphael Sfeir, a lawyer who specializes in environmental law. Countries do it often, in accordance with the Basel Convention. Its not the first time.
The convention was drawn up in 1989 to regulate the export of hazardous waste, after global scandals revealed that wealthy nations were dumping toxic refuse in developing countries without precaution or oversight. Corporations were often striking sweetheart deals with corrupt officials, militias and private landowners to unload their poisonous cargo in secret.
In 1987, the Italian mafia paid-off the Lebanese Forces militia $22 million to dump over 15,000 barrels of toxic waste in undisclosed locations around the country. One-third of the barrels were said to be returned to Italy in the 1990s, but the rest remain unaccounted for.
Though Basel was written to protect the minnows from the sharks, Lebanon is nevertheless obligated under the terms of the treaty to notify its potentially wealthier trade partner of the hazardous content of its waste. This will burden the country with the costly task of thoroughly sorting its garbage.
According to the Basel Convention, dangerous waste cannot cross the borders of the country without being tested, said Antoine Abou Moussa, an environmental consultant for TERRE Liban. We need to sort the waste, so that we can label [the hazardous material], before we sell it to outside of Lebanon.
This is especially important, Abou Moussa said, because Germany will likely incinerate the garbage, and if the hazardous components are not handled properly, they will damage ovens and pollute the environment.
We are responsible for our waste; we are responsible for what we are exporting. At the end of the day, [Germany] will figure out that we gave them hazardous waste, he said. Germany is also party to the Basel Convention.
Most of Lebanons toxic waste is disposed untreated in regular, municipal garbage, according to a 2014 report done in collaboration with the Environment Ministry. The country has no industrial or hazardous waste disposal sites or treatment plants. In July, officials found garbage containing medical waste dumped on the international highway near Chekka.
Our garbage might contain radioactive waste from hospitals, and chemical waste from industries, and other contaminants like heavy metals from batteries, Abou Moussa warned.
Meeting the mandates of the Basel Convention could cost Lebanon around $40 million over two months, Abou Moussa said, though modern waste management practices dictate the country sorts anyway.
Nor can the country simply bulldoze its sorted garbage onto the barges. Organic waste, which is about 80 percent water, will have to be desiccated and baled. Sixty percent of our waste is organic ... This will cost us a lot of time and resources, Abou Moussa said.
And if Lebanon is going to properly sort its garbage, it may as well reuse it, environmentalists say. Recyclers will pay for the recyclables, and farmers will buy composted, organic waste. To undertake all this effort, you might as well sort for recycling, said Ali Darwish, the president of Green Line Association.
Sukleen, the waste management contractor for Beirut and Mount Lebanon, says it sorts and bales all the garbage it collects at its plants in Karantina and Amrousieh.
But the notoriously opaque company does not allow journalists to inspect its facilities, and environmentalists say the company is failing to keep its word.
In the event that Lebanon and its future partner come to a disagreement, the Basel Convention also stipulates the rules for arbitration and punishment.
We have in the convention language regarding disputes and how to deal with them, Sfeir said.
Copyright The Daily Star 2015.
