Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes

In the early 1980s, increasing environmental awareness in many developed countries led to the strict environmental regulations which accelerated the costs of disposing of hazardous wastes. This started an approach known as ‘not in my backyard’ or ‘NIMBY’ by which developed countries found it very easy and cheaper to dump such wastes in developing countries and Eastern European Nations where people are not as much aware as in the developed countries. In the later 1980s it became very evident that hazardous wastes of developed countries were being shipped to and buried in developing countries without proper caution. In order to regulate these wastes across international boundaries, the Basel Convention came into existence.

The Basel Convention on the Control of transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes was established on March 22, 1989 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Basel, Switzerland, under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme. It entered into force in 1992. It came into existence in response to public outcry following the encounter of deposits of toxic wastes imported from abroad in Africa and other parts of the developing world. Currently, there are 187 parties to the convention (As of October 2018). Haiti and United States have signed the treaty but not ratified it. And the convention does not address the issue of movement of radioactive wastes. The Convention includes toxic, poisonous, explosive, corrosive, flammable, ecotoxic and infectious wastes. You are also interested in MontrealProtocol.

The convention aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management and transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and other wastes. The Convention is also commits to curtail the amount and toxicity of wastes produced. The Convention is based on the principle of ‘Notice and Consent’ system for the export of hazardous waste to importing countries. Under the Convention's provisions, trade in hazardous wastes generally cannot take place without the importing country's written consent to a particular export or where the exporting country has reason to believe that the particular wastes will not be handled in an environmentally sound manner.

 Provisions

The provisions of the Convention center around the following principal aims:

• To reduce the hazardous waste generation and the promotion of environmentally safe management of hazardous wastes, wherever the place of disposal.
• To restrict the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes except where it is perceived to be in harmony with the principles of environmentally sound management.
• To institute a regulatory system applying to cases where transboundary movements are permissible.

Aim

v  States require to observe the fundamental principles of environmentally sound waste management (article 4).

v  Hazardous wastes may not be exported to Antarctica, to a State, not a party to the Basel Convention, or to a party having banned the import of hazardous wastes (article 4).

v  Parties may, however, enter into bilateral or multilateral agreements on hazardous waste management with other parties or with non-parties, provided that such agreements are “no less environmentally sound” than the Basel Convention (article 11).

v  The Basel Convention also provides for cooperation between parties, ranging from exchange of information on issues relevant to the implementation of the Convention to technical assistance, particularly to developing countries (articles 10 and 13).

v  Convention attributes responsibility to one or more of the States involved, and imposes the duty to ensure safe disposal, either by re-import into the State of generation or otherwise (articles 8 and 9).

v  The Convention also provides for the establishment of regional or sub-regional centres for training and technology transfers regarding the management of hazardous wastes and other wastes and the minimization of their generation to cater to the specific needs of different regions and sub-regions (article 14).

 

Outcomes of recent COP-14 to the Basel Convention

After two weeks of negotiations involving 187 parties the COP-14 concluded in Geneva on the 10^th May 2019. The significant outcome of the meeting was the amendment of convention to include plastic waste in a legally binding framework, as an initiative to reduce amount of plastic being washed into world’s ocean every year. Please read the article related to Great Pacific Garbage Patch(GPGP) and Bio-Plastics.

Other important outcomes were to eradicate two toxic chemical groups namely Dicfol (Organochlorine pesticide) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (or PFOA, also known as C8, is a man-made chemical), and other related compounds.

 

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