‘Challenges’ Remain to Enforcing Basel Convention Provisions Relating to Electronics Exports, Says Report
Enforcement of the provisions of the Basel Convention relating to “transboundary” movement of used electronics and e-waste faces several challenges, the Basel Convention said in a report. The Convention released a summary of the report on its E-Waste Africa Programme at a meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention in Cartagena, Columbia, that ended Friday. The full report will be released next month, it said.
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Under the Convention, transboundary movement of hazardous waste can take place only after “prior informed consent procedure has been followed and all states involved have given their consent to the transboundary movement,” the report said. “Shipments which do not meet these requirements are illegal and such traffic is criminalized under the Convention.” But in the case of electronics it’s hard to make a “clear distinction” between used electronics and e-waste and “between hazardous and non-hazardous” waste, it said. There’s also the “challenge of monitoring and enforcing the Basel Convention and the Waste Shipment Regulation."
A study of the flow of used electronics and e-waste between Europe and West Africa said the U.K. is the “dominant exporting country” and Nigeria the dominant importing country, the report said. Other major exporters to Africa were France and Germany. Brokers and traders are “key players” in the export to Africa, the report said. The ports of Amsterdam and Antwerp are “gateways” for used electronics and in both ports the exports were often declared as “second-hand goods,” “private goods,” “for charities” or for “personal use,” it said. “In order to disguise illegal exports,” even the labeling of used electronics itself is “often manipulated” and customs declarations are given only the day the carrier is to leave the port, it said.
The study said the majority of imported electronics is “destined for reuse after testing and repair, [but] there are significant volumes that prove unsuitable for reuse and further add to local waste generation.” “Informal” processing of e-waste happens in all African countries studied and “include collection, manual dismantling, open burning to recover metals and open dumping of residual fractions,” the report said. “Emissions from informal recycling activities are problematic in these countries and their impacts on human health and the environment are evident."
A major challenge for West African countries is to “prevent the import of e-waste and near-end-of-life equipment without hampering the socio-economically valuable trade” of used electronics of “good quality,” the report said. The countries also have to set up “well-functioning” local take-back and recycling systems to deal with the increasingly high volume of domestically generated e-waste, it said. “To ensure a maximum yield of valuable recycling fractions, West African recyclers should be encouraged to interlink with international recycling companies and networks to develop market outlets for their pre-processed e-waste,” the report said.