1. The Global Environment and Trade
E-Waste under the Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
World Trade Organization
CTE Meeting, 15 November 2016

2. Global Waste Movements
The global waste sector valued at at least
USD 410 billion a year, takes several forms:
Firstly a legal industry sustaining business and environmental protection,
Secondly an unregulated sometimes even informal business, that is important for recycling and job creation as well, but with health risks and challenges of monitoring the safety and sound management;
Thirdly, trafficking in hazardous waste and chemicals by organized crime.
The Rise of Environmental Crime, UNEP-INTERPOL (2016)

3. “Waste” – Legal or Illegal?
“Waste” itself is not illegal
It is actual “transboundary movements of waste in violation of applicable rules of law” that is illegal

4. Illegal Traffic (Basel Convention, Article 9.1)
No Notification
No Consent
Consent through fraud
Material-Document
Nonconform
Resulting in Deliberate Disposal in Contravention

6. Consumed electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) will generate:
40-50 million tonnes
of e-waste globally
each year

7. E-Waste Definition What is e-waste?
…or Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE)?
Generic term to describe old,
end-of-life or discarded appliances using electricity which have been disposed of by their original users.

8. A rapidly growing problem:
The volume of obsolete PCs generated in developing regions will exceed that of developed regions by
By 2030, the obsolete PCs from developing regions will reach million units, far more than from developed regions at million units.
Yu et al. (2010)

9. Export of E-waste
Lewis (2011)

12. Socio-economic impacts:
Daily income of: (US$) Collectors on dump sites – 0.5 Door-to-door collectors – 3.3 Refurbishing workshop employee – 3.4 Refurbishing workshop owner – 222
UNEP SBC (2011)

13. Thank you!