Basel Convention and movement of hazardous waste

• THE CONVENTION: International agreement designed to limit the movement of hazardous wastes across national boundaries
• DATE: Opened for signature on March 22, 1989

The Basel Convention has been effective in raising public awareness of the transportation of hazardous wastes, and it has somewhat slowed the movement of such wastes from country to country. The convention is not always strictly enforced, however, and some nations continue to transport hazardous wastes across national boundaries illegally.

Spurred by interest generated by several incidents during the 1980s in which ships carrying waste materials sailed from port to port in unsuccessful efforts to be allowed to unload their cargoes, the international community, under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme, negotiated an agreement designed to limit the export of hazardous waste from one country to another. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes defines hazardous waste as used oils, biomedical wastes, persistent organic pollutants such as pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and various other chemicals. The terms of the convention require that prior informed consent be obtained from a country before such wastes can be exported to that country. The goal of the Basel Convention is to minimize the movement of such wastes across national boundaries.

Since it entered into force in May 1992, the Basel Convention has enabled countries to deal with attempts to move hazardous wastes across their borders. It was soon recognized that industrialized nations are the major exporters of hazardous waste, and that less industrialized countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have been the primary recipients of such materials. In 1995, at the second meeting of the convention’s signatory member states, agreement was reached to prohibit the movement of hazardous wastes from industrialized countries to less industrialized countries; this amendment is commonly referred to as the Basel Ban.

In 2021, an amendment adding plastic waste and scrap to the Basel Convention terms took effect. In 2025, amendments to the Basel Convention restricted shipments of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste); changes required that all hazardous and non-hazardous e-waste shipments obtain prior informed consent from the country of import before leaving the country of origin. By the mid-2020s, 191 nations were party to the convention.

The Basel Convention and the Basel Ban have been effective in slowing the migration of hazardous wastes from industrialized to developing countries. Nonetheless, some critics of the convention argue that developing countries are used as dumping grounds for industrialized countries, noting that such exchanges have economic benefits for both parties. This attitude overlooks the economic costs of managing hazardous waste in developing countries, including healthcare expenses incurred when illnesses are caused by exposure to hazardous materials.

Even with the adoption of the Basel Convention, some parties still seek to dispose of hazardous waste at a low cost. Several suspicious shipwrecks have occurred in the Mediterranean involving ships later found to have been carrying cargoes—such as radioactive materials—that would have been subject to the convention. In some cases, these wrecks have led to fishing bans, as occurred along Italy's coast in 2007.

Although the Basel Convention has been effective in raising public awareness of the transportation of hazardous wastes, it has not always been stringently enforced. The movement of hazardous wastes has been somewhat limited by the convention, but until tougher measures are adopted to reduce or somehow safely dispose of hazardous wastes at their points of origin, such wastes will continue to be exported, often illegally, from industrialized countries. Some of these wastes reach developing countries, imposing costs on them; others are disposed of at sea, imposing costs on everyone.

Bibliography

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"Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes." US State Department, www.state.gov/key-topics-office-of-environmental-quality-and-transboundary-issues/basel-convention-on-hazardous-wastes. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.

Mukerjee, Madhusree. “Poisoned Shipments: Are Strange, Illicit Sinkings Making the Mediterranean Toxic?” Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2010, www.scientificamerican.com/article/poisoned-shipments-criminal-waste-disposal. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.

"New International Requirements for Electrical and Electronic Waste." US EPA, 28 Aug. 2025, www.epa.gov/hwgenerators/new-international-requirements-electrical-and-electronic-waste. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.

"Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal." Basel Convention, www.basel.int/Countries/StatusofRatifications/PartiesSignatories/tabid/4499/Default.aspx. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.

Pellow, David Naguib. Resisting Global Toxics. MIT Press, 2007.

"Technical Guidelines on The Environmentally Sound Management of Plastic Wastes." United Nations Environment Programme, 12 May 2023, www.basel.int/Portals/4/download.aspx?d=UNEP-CHW.16-CRP.31.English.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.