BAN Urges Southeast Asian Countries to Ratify E-Waste Amendment

The Basel Action Network urged South and Southeast Asian nations to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment, an international agreement that would amend the existing Basel Convention, agreed to by 194 countries, to make it illegal to export hazardous wastes, including e-waste, from developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and EU to developing countries. BAN warned the nations they could be next, after Thailand, to be hit by a “tidal wave” of electronic and plastic wastes. The warning follows China’s decision to block imports of waste beginning this year with the advent of the "National Sword" policy. In the past month, Thailand has seen rural lands "overrun" with possibly “hundreds of illegal and highly polluting electronic waste processing yards that risk contamination of the food and water supply in the country,” said BAN. Meanwhile, the U.S., Canada and European countries continue to produce “the same volumes of waste and have shown little willingness, nor, at times, the infrastructure to deal with it at home rather than find new destinations for it,” BAN said Tuesday. Based on its GPS tracking, BAN said 40 percent of e-waste given to recyclers was exported, mostly to Asia, with tracked devices arriving in Hong Kong, and increasingly to Thailand and to Pakistan. In the region, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have ratified the agreement, but Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam haven't, it said, noting the amendment is three ratifications short of becoming international law.