Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 6 • Number 22 • 15th December 2006

BASEL PARTIES DEBATE E-WASTE, PATCHWORK OF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS RULES

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BASEL PARTIES DEBATE E-WASTE, PATCHWORK OF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS RULES

Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal recently debated the difference between reusable electronic products and obsolete electronic waste with hazardous components that poses a serious problem when dumped in developing countries.

The Basel Convention’s eighth Conference of the Parties (COP-8) was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 27 November to 1 December. In addition to e-waste, participants also addressed the current patchwork of international conventions dealing with chemicals and wastes, and continued a long-standing push to ban the shipment of hazardous wastes to developing countries. The so called Ban Amendment that would prohibit all exports of hazardous waste from OECD countries to developing countries was negotiated under the Basel Convention over ten years ago, but has yet to enter into force. The issue was given urgency by the fact that the meeting took place soon after the August toxic waste tragedy in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where poisonous slops were dumped from a ship, leaving thousands of people ill and at least ten dead (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 8 September 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/06-09-08/story2.htm).

Used e-products - opportunity or threat?

Up to 50 million tonnes of "e-waste" is thought to be generated worldwide each year, as consumers replace mobile phones, televisions and computers. Substantial amounts of such waste are shipped to developing countries where their safe disposal is a growing problem. A number of mobile phone producers were present at the meeting to help find sustainable solutions to the issue. "Whatever is agreed… developing countries should no longer be victims of hazardous waste transfers disguised as end-of-life or even as usable equipment," commented Sachiko Kuwabara Yamamoto, head of the Basel Convention.

The World Forum on E-waste, which constituted the high-level segment of COP-8, adopted a Declaration on E-waste, which, among other, calls for clean technology and green design, "including the phase-out of hazardous substances used in production". The declaration also stresses that illegal traffic in e-waste is a serious concern that needs to be urgently addressed.

Currently, the mobile phone sector is undertaking pilot work in this area. The "Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative" has produced a voluntary guidance document on environmentally-sound management of used and end-of-life mobile phones, which COP-8 decided should be tested out by more countries.

Private sector representatives and civil society also participated in the high-level segment. Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, noted that "Finally, the Convention fully recognised what NGOs had been saying for a long time about the seriousness of the e-waste crisis and vowed to take actions for green design of electronics and for closing off global e-waste trafficking." Others were less positive, however, with the US saying that more confidence should be given to global markets, and that the Declaration’s call for reduction rather than phase-out of toxic substances was unrealistic.

Effects of the Abidjan tragedy?

The Abidjan tragedy provided an alarming backdrop to COP-8, prompting civil society organisations to call for the Ban Amendment to finally come into force (see Bridges Trade BioRes,5 November 2004, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/04-11-05/inbrief.htm#1). According to the Basel Action network, "It became very clear at this meeting that the tragedy in the Ivory Coast reawakened the world to the need for the Basel Ban prohibiting exports of hazardous wastes from developed to developing countries." A recent report on the accident in Abidjan, carried out by a national inquiry commission led by Fatou Diakite, stated that "Problems linked to lack of rigorous management, failure to observe professional ethics and non-application of regulations … favoured the entry and dumping of toxic waste in the District of Abidjan." The full inquiry is still ongoing.

The Basel Convention requires exporters of hazardous waste to obtain a certificate of prior informed consent from the competent authorities in the importing country before shipments can proceed. The so-called Ban Amendment — which was negotiated at COP-3 in 1995 — goes further, prohibiting the movement of any hazardous wastes from the EU and other industrialised countries to all other parties. The amendment has been championed by African countries, as well as civil society organisations, due to their concerns over weak monitoring, enforcement and/or disposal capabilities.

However, the ban has yet to enter into force, having been ratified by 63 of the required 127 Parties. Countries disagreed at COP-8 on some of the formal requirements for it to enter into force. Some countries, such as the US and Japan, would like to continue their exports, and claim that the ban would conflict with WTO rules and may pre-empt countries’ ability to join in bilateral and multilateral waste trade agreements. Likewise, some receiving countries value the jobs created in the waste processing industry. Other countries, including the EU and a large number of developing countries, are already applying the Ban Amendment.

Patch-work of international agreements requires cooperation

According to Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, "We must assist Côte D’Ivoire now, but it cannot end there. We must enforce existing laws in both OECD and developing countries alongside building the capacity for customs authorities and local waste management at ports and elsewhere to minimise the chances of such an incident occurring in the future."

In addition to highlighting problems related to enforcement, the Abidjan dumping case also focused attention on the patchwork of legal obligations in the areas of chemicals and wastes — and their gaps. Indeed, the meeting focused on improving cooperation with other treaty processes related to chemicals and shipping.

Kuwabara-Yamamoto stressed that "We need to work closely with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to ensure that our respective regimes compliment one another and produce an airtight global system for regulating all wastes linked to shipping. This is equally true in the area of obsolete ships, where we must continue to work in partnership with the IMO as well as with the International Labour Organisation."

COP-8 established an ad hoc joint working group on coordination with the chemicals-related conventions. Participants also called for better cooperation with the IMO’s International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Convention on the treatment of wastes resulting from the normal operations of ships and the Basel Convention with regard to the transport of waste cargoes. It still remains unclear whether the Abidjan accident would fall under MARPOL or the Basel Convention, although COP-8 addressed the issue head-on.

The meeting also heard an update from the Joint Working Group of the ILO, IMO and Basel Convention on Ship Scrapping. The IMO is currently drafting a new convention on ship recycling, another contentious issue potentially addressed by all three conventions (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 20 October 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/06-10-20/inbrief.htm#2).

The next COP of the Basel Convention will be held in September or October 2008 in Indonesia.Additional resources

COP-8 documents are available at http://cop8.basel.int/.

For a full report of the meeting see IISD’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin at http://www.iisd.ca/basel/cop8/.

ICTSD reporting; "UN Meeting Fixes Toxic Waste Steps, Needs Funds," REUTERS, 4 December 2006; "Call for Global Action on E-waste," UNEP RELEASE, 1 December 2006; "From PC’s To Ships: UN Meeting Tackles Toxic Waste," REUTERS, 28 November 2006; "World Governments Asked To Pay For Ivory Coast Cleanup," ENS, 24 November 2006; "Ivorian Toxic Waste Probe Slams Errors by Officials," REUTERS, 24 November 2006; "Tackling Mountains of E-Waste: 50 Million Tons Per Year," ENS, 4 December 2006; "Basel Action Network Report and Press Statements on the Results of the Eighth Conference of theParties of the Basel Convention," BAN RELEASE, 2 December 2006.