Hazmat salvage completed in Beirut

1. March 2021

Today the time has finally come: the work in the Port of Beirut is finished.

Since the beginning of November, HÖPPNER has been taking care of the hazardous materials that have been stored in the port for decades on behalf of the company CombiLift from Bremen. As part of the hazardous waste recovery, the colleagues on site secured and identified the existing chemicals, filled them into suitable transport containers and prepared them for professional disposal and recycling in Germany.

The quantities of chemicals recovered from 58 dilapidated shipping containers, some of which had been eaten away by the acids stored in them:

  • 700 buckets of sodium hydroxide
  • 380 IBC containers containing sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, acetone, methanol and thinner
  • 350 barrels of methyl bromide

“We have now successfully completed an exciting project with initial imponderables,” says Michael Wentler, visibly relieved. “What we found here at the beginning of November was really unbelievable: I was knee-deep in hydrochloric acid. We had to have all the safety equipment flown in from Germany, otherwise we would have worked in rain ponchos instead of protective suits. In the glow of the harbor lights you could see the acid clouds above the containers. It is all the more gratifying that everything is now securely packed and labeled and that our area in the port no longer poses a risk to the population and the environment.”

As soon as the notification has been finalized, the dangerous goods, packed in new shipping containers, will be taken to northern Germany and will probably be recycled or disposed of there by Nehlsen AG in April.