Philip Issa| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Government ministers approved a decree to export the bulk of Beirut and Mount Lebanon’s waste Monday, potentially signaling an end to a ruinous crisis that has left the capital region buried in trash.

“The Cabinet has turned a new page today and lifted a great weight off the backs of the people,” premier Tammam Salam declared after a marathon six-hour Cabinet session.

It was the Cabinet’s first meeting since Sept. 9. The executive body has been paralyzed by indecision stemming from a dispute over its decision-making mechanism in the absence of a president.

The decree authorizes the Council for Development and Reconstruction to draw up contracts with two firms, one British and one Dutch, to handle the export operations for a period of 18 months.

However, it will take officials weeks to draw up the contracts and treaties to fulfill the country’s obligations under international law. Trash exports are governed by the United Nations Basel Convention.

Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb, who shepherded the proposal through the Cabinet, said he aimed to begin operations in mid-January. He did not specify the receiving nations.

Exporting will cost the country $200 million, Chehayeb said afterward, to be paid out of the Independent Municipal Fund, the state’s pot of money for local governments.

It comes out to $212 per ton, including sweeping fees for Greater Beirut – approximately $60 more than the state was rumored to pay Sukleen, the last waste contract holder for the region.

Still, the new arrangement comes at a comparatively lower cost, Chehayeb argued, because waste sorting improvements mean the new contractors will have less garbage to handle. The new companies will use the sorting facilities in Karantina and Amrousieh, which Sukleen currently manages.The daily waste production for the service region is expected to fall from 3,000 tons to 2,500, though the agriculture minister did not offer further details. Previous efforts to improve waste sorting have fallen short.

Salam called the resolution “complicated and provisional,” intended to defuse the trash crisis until a more sustainable solution is developed. Monday’s decree affirmed a 2010 Cabinet decision mandating waste-to-energy garbage incineration though this contradicts the September decree to decentralize the waste sector.

FPM Minister Elias Bou Saab and Kataeb Ministers Sejaan Azzi and Alain Hakim did not approve the decree, while FPM Minister Gebran Bassil and Hezbollah Minister Mohammad Fneish did not attend the session, pointing to divisions that still plague Salam’s government.

Monday’s session was exclusively about the trash crisis, Salam told reporters afterward. “The Civil Defense issue is thorny, and hopefully we will address it at the next meeting.”

Civil Defense volunteers, the country’s main first responders, are demanding that the Cabinet pass the decrees necessary to implement a law that will make them full-time employees with financial and social security security benefits.

The prime minister said he intended to reconvene the Cabinet shortly after the New Year.