A ship prepared to ferry dozens of containers of hazardous materials from Lebanon’s capital to Germany on Friday, according to managers of a cleanup project.
German firm Combi Lift was contracted to remove dangerous substances from the port after the explosion of hundreds of tonnes of fertiliser there on August 4 last year killed more than 200 people and ravaged large parts of Beirut.
The last of 59 containers was lifted onto the ship on Friday and Heiko Felderhoff, CEO of Combi Lift, said they would be disposed of in Germany.
Meanwhile, Elias Assouad, head of the Lebanese-German Business Council, says the project had cleared the port of “all toxic, cancerous, flammable and highly reactive chemicals that have been stored for decades.
He said the German firm had been expected “to deal with only 49 containers of hazardous material, but they ended up “handling more than 75, of which 59 will be shipped”.
A chemical expert managing the operation Michael Wentler told Newsmen after finishing the job in February that Beirut only avoided a second chemical inferno by chance.
Wentler had described festering chemical mixtures so corrosive they burned gaping holes right through massive shipping containers. Hydrochloric acid, a corrosive and toxic substance, made up 60 percent of the chemicals Combi Lift came across.
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