Waste Crime - Waste Risks: Gaps in Meeting the Global Waste Challenge

Impact of illegal traffic of waste

agreement among some African countries which came into force in 1998, is similar to the Basel Convention in format and language, but much stronger in prohibiting all imports of hazardous wastes from outside the African continent. Unlike the Basel Convention, it does not exclude from its scope radi- oactive wastes subject to other international control systems. Another example of a regional agreement is the Convention to Ban the Importation of Hazardous and Radioactive Waste and to Control the Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Waste within the South Pacific Region, also known as the Waigani Convention. Like the Bamako Convention, the Waigani Convention also includes radioactive waste. It only applies to the Pacific region, but obligations are similar to the Basel Convention. The Waigani Convention currently has 13 signatories (SREP 2013). Since March 1992, the transboundary movement of wastes destined for recovery operations between member countries of the OECD has been supervised and controlled under a specific intra-OECD Control System (OECD 2015). It aims at facilitating trade of recyclables in an environmentally sound and economically efficient manner by using a simplified procedure, along with a risk-based approach to assessing the necessary level of control for materials. Wastes exported outside the OECD area, whether for recovery or final disposal, do not benefit from this simplified control procedure. It should also noted that the Basel Convention allows the Parties to define the wastes in addition to the Convention lists and recognizes the right of the Parties to regulate their import/export of wastes (Articles 3.1 and 4.1). The implemen- tation and enforcement of the Basel Convention and other regional instruments largely depends on national legislation and institutional structures governing transboundary ship- ments of hazardous waste and other wastes. What is waste? The first and probably most complex question is whether a certain substance or object is waste. Modern recycling involves innovative technologies to move waste back into the produc- • Illegal traffic of waste has an adverse effect on trade and competition, putting law-abiding businesses at an economic disadvantage. • Illegal traffic undermines international policy, the rule of law, and enforcement efforts. • The lack of environmentally sound management of waste, including its dumping, following an illegal transboundary movement may have severe implica- tions for the environment and human health, and the subsequent clean-up is an economic burden.

tion of the environment, its effects on international trade being only incidental” (European Parliament 2006). It aims at strengthening, simplifying, and specifying the procedures for controlling waste shipments in order to improve envi- ronmental protection. It also seeks to introduce into Euro- pean Community (EC) legislation the provisions of the Basel Convention, the Ban amendment, as well as the revision of the OECD 2001 Decision on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Wastes Destined for Recovery Operations. The Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement andManagement of Hazardous Wastes within Africa (UNEP n.d.), a regional

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