MEETING OF PARTIES TO BASEL CONVENTION TO SPECIFY WHICH HAZARDOUS WASTES ARE SUBJECT TO EXPORT BAN
Press Release
UNEP/23
MEETING OF PARTIES TO BASEL CONVENTION TO SPECIFY WHICH HAZARDOUS WASTES ARE SUBJECT TO EXPORT BAN
19980219 NAIROBI, 19 February (UNEP) -- Meeting in Malaysia next week under the auspices of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, government ministers will specify the hazardous wastes that will be subject to a worldwide export ban from developed to developing countries.Discussions at this fourth meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP-4) will be based on two lists developed by the Basel Convention's Technical Working Group.
The first "hazardous waste" list would ban the export of wastes containing arsenic, lead, mercury, asbestos, and dozens of other chemicals and substances.
A second "non-hazardous" list includes wastes that would normally not be covered by the treaty. These are wastes that can be safely (and profitably) recycled or re-used, including scrap iron, steel or copper, certain electronic assemblies, non-hazardous chemical catalysts, and many ceramics, solid plastics and paper and textile wastes.
"The adoption of these lists will help clarify the rules of the game and enable governments to satisfy both environmental and economic concerns", said Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
"Such global environmental cooperation is critical at this time in which we witness the globalization of the economy, of markets, and of products", said Mr. Topfer. "Clearly specifying which wastes are covered by the Convention, and which are not, will enable countries to make more informed economic decisions", he said.
The Basel Convention is the response of the international community to the problems caused by the annual worldwide production of 400 million tons of wastes which are hazardous to people or the environment because they are toxic, poisonous, explosive, corrosive, flammable, or infectious.
This global environmental treaty strictly regulates the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and provides obligations to its parties to ensure that such wastes are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.
- 2 - Press Release UNEP/23 19 February 1998
The Basel Convention was adopted in March 1989 after a series of notorious "toxic cargoes" from industrialized countries galvanized world outrage over the dumping of hazardous wastes in developing and East European countries. It entered into force in May 1992 and now has 117 parties. The third meeting of the Conference of Parties was held in Geneva in September 1995, and the fifth, marking the Convention's tenth anniversary, is likely to be held in Basel, Switzerland.
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