The following is from the 31 October 2011 edition of the American Shipper.
Delegates to the Basel Convention, seeking to end international trade in hazardous waste, including old electronic products, met in Cartagena, Colombia earlier this month and agreed to unblock an amendment that would ban the export of hazardous wastes from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries, known as the Ban Amendment.
The decision, containing a set of measures aimed at strengthening international control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes, was adopted on Oct. 21, the closing day of the 10th meeting of the 178 countries that are parties to the convention.
The environmental group Basel Action Network hailed the action as a "breakthrough," saying the Ban Amendment will go into effect when 68 of the 90 countries that were parties to the convention in 1995, ratify the agreement. Already 51 of these have ratified the amendment, leaving just 17 more needed.
Basel Action Network said it expected that this can be achieved in 2-3 years.
Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, said implementation of the Ban Amendment would ensure "developing countries are not convenient dumping grounds for toxic factory waste, obsolete ships containing asbestos or old computers coming from affluent countries. It enforces the Basel Convention obligation that all countries manage their own hazardous waste.”