Summary
In the five years since Rio, excellent progress has been made toward stopping the worst of the international trade in hazardous wastes. The key action was the decision of the Basel Convention in March 1994 to prohibit waste shipments from the rich countries of the OECD to the rest of the world. For wastes headed for final disposal, the ban came into effect immediately; for recycling, the ban takes effect at the end of 1997. This decision, also known as the "Basel Ban," is the fulfilment of a recommendation in Agenda 21.
Other areas of toxic trade have not seen such substantial progress. Trade in toxic, banned pesticides still occurs. While negotiations for a prior informed consent procedure are well underway, this procedure will not prevent trade in those pesticides. Exports of genetically manipulated organisms which can cause harm to ecosystems in importing countries are just beginning, virtually without regulation.
Trade in spent nuclear fuel from Europe and Japan to France and Britain for storage and reprocessing continues unabated. Discharges from three commercial reprocessing facilities in Europe continue to release radiation to the environment. The same facilities have large stockpiles of plutonium and high level radioactive wastes. Shipments of plutonium fuel (mixed plutonium/uranium oxides, or MOX), are scheduled to increase over the next few years, as are shipments of high level wastes. In addition, there have been attempts to begin trade in so-called "low level" radioactive wastes from Taiwan to North Korea.
Problem Statement
"I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that...under populated countries such as Africa are vastly under-polluted." --Lawrence Summers, then Chief Economist of the World Bank.
In the late 1980s Greenpeace researchers discovered a pattern of waste shipments from richer industrialized nations to poorer, less industrialized ones. Initially the preferred dumping grounds for toxic wastes was Africa. After scandals in the late 1980s that shifted to Latin America and Eastern Europe. Currently, Asia is the last dumping ground for waste from the West. As waste disposal became more stringently regulated and more expensive in the North, waste generators and brokers thought up hundreds of schemes to send these wastes to the developing world, sometimes disguising their plans as humanitarian aid or environmentally beneficial recycling. Most of these schemes died once made public, but many cases of waste exports did occur. Toxic incinerator ash from Philadelphia was dumped on a beach in Haiti. PCBs from Italy wound up on a farm in Koko, Nigeria. Obsolete pesticides from Germany ended up in Albania. The path of toxic waste trade was the path of least resistance.
After the scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s involving this exploitative trade in wastes, most of these schemes began incorporating some form of recycling to justify them. Some of these "recyclable" wastes were never recycled, like some 10,000 barrels of U.S.-generated mercury wastes which sit in a warehouse in South Africa. Even where recycling did take place, the process often caused devastating toxic contamination of workers and surrounding communities. Examples include the recovery of lead from car batteries, and zinc from galvanizing ash.
The 1994 decision of the Basel Convention represented a very special victory for the developing countries which proposed and supported it. While there are still attempts to undermine the ban on hazardous waste trade, most of the worst of the trade is at an end. In 1995 the Basel Convention adopted the Basel Ban as an Amendment to the Convention. The European Union has fully endorsed the ban. Australia, which is a Party to the Convention, still maintains the ban is not binding, while the U.S. remains the only industrialized country to remain outside the Basel Convention entirely.
Greenpeace's Involvement in the Issue
Greenpeace has been deeply involved with this issue since 1988. We have documented literally hundreds of schemes, taken direct action against many of them, published dozens of reports, produced several videos, and sent a substantial delegation to all meetings of the Basel Convention and its working groups. Greenpeace remains vigilant regarding implementation of the Basel Ban. We are monitoring attempts to sign bilateral agreements which circumvent and undermine the ban. In addition, we have exposed the ongoing trade in zinc and lead wastes between OECD countries and India, despite Court orders against such trade in India.
Solutions
To its credit, the Commission on Sustainable Development also has supported the progress of the Basel Convention.
UNGASS/ES2 should
Relevant Reports
The International Trade In Wastes: A Greenpeace Inventory, Vallette et al Washington, DC 1993
A Victory for Environment and Justice: The Basel Ban and How it Happened, Jim Puckett and Cathy Fogel, Ecologist Reprint available from Greenpeace International, Amsterdam
The Basel Ban: The Pride of the Basel Convention and other Greenpeace briefing papers prepared for the Basel Convention Conference of Parties II and III, Greenpeace International, Amsterdam.
Key Contacts
Marcelo Furtado, Greenpeace Brazil, tel: 55.11.3061.2934, fax: 55.11.881.4940, e-mail: marcelo.furtado@dialb.greenpeace.org
Anjela Wilkes, Greenpeace International, tel: 31.20.523.6263, fax: 31.20.523.6200, e-mail: anjela.wilkes@ams.greenpeace.org
At the Second Conference Of Parties, the Basel Convention decided (Decision II/12) to:
1) ...prohibit immediately all transboundary movements of hazardous wastes which are destined for final disposal from OECD to non-OECD States;
2) ...to phase out by 31 December 1997, and prohibit as of that date, all transboundary movements of hazardous wastes which are destined for recycling or recovery operations from OECD to non-OECD countries.