The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention), is the most comprehensive global legal instrument on the transboundary movement and environmentally sound disposal of hazardous wastes. It was the primary response developed by the international community, under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), subsequent to recognising the need for urgent action on hazardous wastes in the late 1980s. As of January 2021, there are 188 Parties to the Convention, inclusive of 14 Caribbean countries as well as economic integration organisations.
Map of Caribbean Parties to the Basel Convention
The overarching goal of the Basel Convention is to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of generating, handling and transporting hazardous and other wastes.
Other objectives of the Convention, based upon principles with respect to the generation, management and disposal of hazardous and other wastes include:
- Minimising the amount of hazardous wastes that are generated, and ensuring that they are managed in clearly defined environmentally sound ways;
- Reducing transboundary movements of wastes to a minimum, consistent with managing them in environmentally sound and efficient ways, and controlling those permitted under the terms of the Convention;
- Assisting (primarily developing countries and those with economies in transition) with the environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate; and
- Encouraging wherever possible, the in-country management of hazardous wastes.
The scope of the Convention encompasses a wide range of wastes classified as hazardous wastes based on their origin, composition and characteristics as outlined in Article I and Annexes I, II VIII and IX to the Convention. There are also two types of wastes categorised as other wastes under Article I and Annex II, namely household wastes and incineration wastes. Some of the wastes regulated by the Convention include biomedical and healthcare wastes, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) wastes, used oils and lead acid batteries, electrical and electronic waste, asbestos waste, used fluorescent bulbs, and many more.
The Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative (MPPI) was launched in 2002 through the establishment of a working group consisting of experts from Parties and Signatories to the Convention who were interested in a sustainable partnership on the environmentally sound management of end-of-life mobile telephones as well as representatives of mobile phone manufacturers and the Secretariat of the Basel Convention. The overall objective of the Partnership was to promote the objectives of the Basel Convention in the area of the environmentally sound management of end-of-life mobile phones.
In 2008, the Partnership was disbanded after it was recognised that it had successfully completed its mandate through the development of:
- Five technical guidelines (on awareness raising - design considerations, collection of used and end-of-life mobile phones, transboundary movement of collected mobile phones, refurbishment of used mobile phones, and material recovery/recycling of end-of-life mobile phones),
- An overall Guidance Document on the environmentally sound management of used and end-of-life mobile phones which contains summaries and recommendations, taken from all five technical guidelines, and
- A Glossary of Terms was developed to assist readers to better understand the Guidelines and the overall Guidance Document.
The developed guidelines were tested in facility type environments and revised accordingly with the final guidance document being adopted by the tenth Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention in October 2011.
The Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE) was launched in 2008 to support the environmentally sound refurbishment, repair, material recovery, recycling and disposal of used end-of-life computing equipment through multi-stakeholder partnerships between public and private sector representatives of personal computer manufacturers, recyclers, international organizations, associations, academia, environmental groups and governments. The PACE Working Group was further asked to develop a strategy and workplan for the regional and national level implementation of concrete actions for environmentally sound management of end-of-life computing equipment.
The mandate of the Working Group was completed in 2017 with its presentation of a guidance document on the environmentally sound management of used and end of life computing equipment, guidelines, a manual and reports.
The Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic (ENFORCE) was established by the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention to promote Parties’ compliance with the provisions of the Basel Convention pertaining to preventing and combating illegal traffic in hazardous wastes and other wastes through the better implementation and enforcement of national law. ENFORCE aims to bring together existing resources and enhance and improve cooperation and coordination between relevant entities that deliver capacity-building activities and tools on preventing and combating illegal traffic.
The Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention established the Household Waste Partnership in 2015 with the objective of promoting the environmentally sound management (ESM) of household waste by overseeing organizational matters such as the establishment of project groups and reviews of their work products and reports; serving as a forum for information sharing; and taking the lead in awareness raising, outreach and coordination in relation to activities on the ESM of household waste.
The BCRC-Caribbean is a member of the Working Group for the Household Waste Partnership and has significantly contributed to the development of draft modules for guidance on the environmentally sound management of household waste which aim to demonstrate best practices related to the ESM of household wastes. The draft document was revised by the Working Group subsequent to the provision of comments by Parties and observers to the Basel Convention, and the second meeting of the Partnership was hosted by the BCRC-Caribbean in September 2019 to support its finalisation (Image shows meeting participants).
At its fourteenth meeting, in 2019, the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention established the Basel Convention Partnership on Plastic Waste to mobilise business, government, academic and civil society resources, interests and expertise to improve and promote the environmentally sound management of plastic waste at the global, regional and national levels and to prevent and minimize its generation. Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are members to the Partnership (as of May 2020).
The work of the Partnership is overseen by a working group that established four project groups at its first face-to-face meeting in March 2020. These Groups are focused on 1) Plastic waste prevention and minimization, 2) Plastic waste collection, recycling and other recovery including financing and related markets, 3) Transboundary movements of plastic waste and 4) Outreach, education and awareness-raising. The Director (Ag.) of the BCRC-Caribbean, Ms. Jewel Batchasingh, is one of the co-chairs for the Outreach, education and awareness-raising project group.