Basel Convention and movement of hazardous waste
The Basel Convention is an international agreement aimed at regulating the movement of hazardous wastes across national borders, opened for signature on March 22, 1989, and effective since May 1992. It was established in response to alarming incidents in the 1980s where ships carrying hazardous materials struggled to find ports willing to accept their cargoes. The convention defines hazardous waste to include substances like used oils, biomedical wastes, and persistent pollutants, and it mandates that prior informed consent from receiving countries is necessary before any export can occur.
A significant development within the convention was the 1995 Basel Ban, which prohibits the export of hazardous wastes from industrialized nations to less developed ones. In 2021, an amendment was introduced to include plastic waste, further broadening the scope of regulated materials. Despite its successes in raising awareness and slowing hazardous waste migration, enforcement remains inconsistent, and illegal transport continues, resulting in health and environmental risks in receiving nations. Critics highlight that while some may view hazardous waste exchanges as economically beneficial, they often overlook the hidden costs associated with health impacts in developing countries. Overall, the Basel Convention serves as a critical framework for managing hazardous waste transboundary movements but faces ongoing challenges in implementation and enforcement.
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Subject Terms
Basel Convention and movement of hazardous waste
THE CONVENTION: International agreement designed to limit the movement of hazardous wastes across national boundaries
DATE: Opened for signature on March 22, 1989
The Basel Convention has been effective in raising public awareness of the transporting of hazardous wastes, and it has somewhat slowed the movement of such wastes from country to country. The convention is not always strictly enforced, however, and some nations continue to transport hazardous wastes across national boundaries illegally.
Spurred by interest generated by several incidents during the 1980’s in which ships carrying materials sailed from port to port in unsuccessful efforts to be allowed to unload their cargoes, the international community, under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme, negotiated an agreement designed to limit the export of from one country to another. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes defines hazardous waste as used oils, biomedical wastes, persistent pollutants such as pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and various other chemicals. The terms of the convention require that prior informed consent be obtained from a country before such wastes can be exported to that country. The goal of the Basel Convention is to minimize the movement of such wastes across national boundaries.
Since it entered into force in May, 1992, the Basel Convention has enabled countries to deal with attempts to move hazardous wastes across their borders. It was soon recognized that the industrialized nations are the major exporters of hazardous waste and that the less industrialized countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia had been the primary recipients of such materials. In 1995, at the second meeting of the convention’s signatory member states, agreement was reached to prohibit the movement of hazardous wastes from industrialized countries to less industrialized countries; this amendment is commonly referred to as the Basel Ban. In 2021, an amendment adding plastic waste and scrap to the Basel Convention terms took effect. As of 2024, 191 nations were party to the convention.
The Basel Convention and the Basel Ban have been effective in slowing the migration of hazardous wastes from industrialized to developing countries. Nonetheless, some critics of the convention argue for the use of developing countries as dumping grounds for industrialized countries, noting that such exchanges have economic benefits for both parties. This attitude ignores the economic costs associated with dealing with hazardous waste in developing countries, such as the health care costs that arise when illnesses are caused by contact with hazardous materials.
Even with the adoption of the Basel Convention, some parties still seek to dispose of hazardous wastes in cheap fashion. Several suspicious shipwrecks have occurred in the Mediterranean involving ships later found to have been carrying cargoes—such as radioactive materials—that would have been subject to the convention. In some cases these wrecks have led to fishing bans, as occurred along the coast of Italy in 2007.
Although the Basel Convention has been effective in raising public awareness of the transporting of hazardous wastes, it has not always been stringently enforced. The movement of hazardous wastes has been somewhat limited by the convention, but until tougher measures are adopted to reduce or somehow safely dispose of hazardous wastes at their points of origin, such wastes will continue to be exported, often illegally, from industrialized countries. Some of these wastes arrive at developing countries, imposing costs on them; other wastes are disposed of at sea, imposing costs on everyone.
Bibliography
Mukerjee, Madhusree. “Poisoned Shipments: Are Strange, Illicit Sinkings Making the Mediterranean Toxic?” Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2010, www.scientificamerican.com/article/poisoned-shipments-criminal-waste-disposal/. Accessed 15 July 2024.
"Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal." Basel Convention, www.basel.int/Countries/StatusofRatifications/PartiesSignatories/tabid/4499/Default.aspx. Accessed 15 July 2024.
Pellow, David Naguib. Resisting Global Toxics. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007.
United Nations Environment Programme. Minimizing Hazardous Wastes: A Simplified Guide to the Basel Convention. Geneva: Author, 2002.