Environmental Services • Volume 8 • Number 10 • 30th May 2008

G-8 Environment Ministers Seek Electronics Recycling Solutions

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Japan’s environment minister, Ichiro Kamoshita, chaired a meeting in Kobe, Japan on climate change, biodiversity, and an initiative on 3R (reuse, reduce, recycle) with regard to electronics waste, among his fellow ministers within the groups of eight highly industrialised countries.

The meeting served as preparation for the G-8 Summit, scheduled to take place in Hokkaido Toyako on 7-9 July this year. The environment ministers concluded the 24-26 May meeting with an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, failing, however, to agree on specific emissions reduction targets along the way. The meeting also promulgated two documents: the Kobe Call for Action for Biodiversity and the Kobe 3Rs Action Plan.

Among the meeting topics, the 3R Action Plan, launched by the G-8 in 2004, stirred controversy among civil society groups. E-waste contains hazardous materials used to make electronic products (eg circuit boards, batteries, liquid crystal panels), including lead, mercury, cadmium, barium, beryllium, chromium, arsenic, vanadium, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Movement of these goods across borders is regulated in accordance with the Basel Convention.

However, many developed countries, including Japan, label electronic waste as “second-hand goods destined for re-use,” making it immune to the trade regulations imposed under the Basel Convention, and thus able to be exported to developing countries.

“The 3R Initiative’s objective of facilitating the movement of goods and recyclables coupled with waste policies and trade agreements pushed by some G8 member countries that would move toxic waste across international boundaries only serve to heighten the concern of developing nations over the real intent by the G8 behind the Initiative,” Richard Gutierrez, Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Office of the Basel Action Network, said in a dialogue between civil society and the G8 ministers.

Gutierrez went on to say that a fourth R - responsibility - should be added to the existing three, which would foist upon manufacturers, consumers and governments alike the burden of reducing e-waste and mitigating its production, use and transport. Furthermore, he urged the ministers to insist on the ratification of the Basel Ban Amendment, which prohibits the export of hazardous waste to developing countries.

Takeshi Yasuma, Chemicals Policy Analyst of the Citizens Against Chemical Pollution (a Japanese NGO) said that Japan was in a unique position to make an impact on the issue of the 3Rs Initiative and on responsible e-waste management more generally. “Not only is the Initiative Japan’s brainchild, but Japan is the center of major global manufacturing, holding the current G8 presidency, and ironically is guilty of pushing toxic waste trade agreements like its Economic Partnership Agreements in Asia. Japan and the G8 members can change the 3R Initiative and really turn it into a tool for genuine sustainable development and environmental justice. The G8 has the technical, financial, and human resource to do this. What is lacking is the political will.”

In his summary of the 3-day meting, Chair Kamoshita acknowledged the occurrence of severe health and environmental problems in developing countries that were related with improper recycling of end-of-life products, such as e-waste. However, he was quick to mention the potential resource value of such materials as well.

To access the Chair’s summary of the meeting, visit http://www.env.go.jp/en/headline/headline.php?serial=792.

ICTSD reporting; “Chair’s summary: G8 Environment Ministers Meeting”, JAPAN MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, 27 May 2008; “G8 Environment Ministers Agree on 2050 Climate Goal,” ENS, 27 May 2008; “NGOs urge G8 rethink the 3R Initiative”, BAN, 26 May 2008; “Position paper for the 3R Initiative”, BAN, May 2008.