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The Global Waste Trade Electronic Waste

Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, refers to discarded electrical or electronic devices. A rapidly-growing surplus of electronic waste around the world has resulted from quickly evolving technological advances, changes in media (tapes, software, MP3), falling prices, and planned obsolescence. An estimated 50 million tons of E-waste are produced each year, the majority of which comes from the United States and Europe. Most of this electronic waste is shipped to developing countries in Asia and Africa to be processed and recycled.

Various studies have investigated the environmental and health effects of this e-waste upon the people who live and work around electronic waste dumps. Heavy metals, toxins, and chemicals leak from these discarded products into surrounding waterways and groundwater, poisoning the local people. People who work in these dumps, local children searching for items to sell, and people living in the surrounding communities are all exposed to these deadly toxins.

Electronic Waste Dump of the World: Guiyu, China One city suffering from the negative results of the hazardous waste trade is Guiyu, China, which has been called the electronic waste dump of the world. It may be the world's largest e-waste dump, with workers dismantling over 1.5 million pounds of junked computers, cell phones and other electronic devices per year. People working in these e-waste dumps and recycling facilities process raw toxic chemicals with their bare hands, and rarely wear protective covering. The people living in surrounding areas also suffer from various negative health effects and diseases from being exposed to these toxic chemicals. A study conducted by Professor Xia Huo et al. compared the levels of lead present in children's blood in Giuyu, China, to the blood lead levels in children living in other cities. The results showed that children living in Guiyu had significantly higher levels of lead in their blood than children living in other cities in China.

Impacts of the Global Waste Trade The global waste trade has had negative effects for many people, particularly in poorer, developing nations. These countries often do not have safe recycling processes or facilities, and people process the toxic waste with their bare hands. Hazardous wastes are often not properly disposed of or treated, leading to poisoning of the surrounding environment and resulting in illness and death in people and animals. Many people have experienced illnesses or death due to the unsafe way these hazardous wastes are handled.

Effects upon the Environment The hazardous waste trade has disastrous effects upon the environment and natural ecosystems. Various studies explore how the concentrations of persistent organic pollutants have poisoned the areas surrounding the dump sites, killing numerous birds, fish, and other wildlife. There are heavy metal chemical concentrations in the air, water, soil, and sediment in and around these toxic dump areas, and the concentration levels of heavy metals in these areas are extremely high and toxic.

Implications for Human Health The hazardous waste trade has serious damaging effects upon the health of humans. People living in developing countries may be more vulnerable to the dangerous effects of the hazardous waste trade, and are particularly at risk from developing health problems. The methods of disposal of these toxic wastes in developing countries expose the general population (including future generations) to the highly toxic chemicals. These toxic wastes are often disposed of in open landfills, burned in incinerators,or in other dangerous processes. Workers wear little to no protective gear when processing these toxic chemicals, and are exposed to these toxins through direct contact, inhalation, contact with soil and dust, as well as oral intake of contaminated locally-produced food and drinking water. Health problems resulting from these hazardous wastes affect humans by causing cancers, diabetes, alterations in neurochemical balances, hormone disruptions from endocrine disruptors, skin alterations, neurotoxicity, kidney damage, liver damage, bone disease, emphysema, ovotoxicity, reproductive damage, and many other fatal diseases. The improper disposal of these hazardous wastes creates fatal health problems, and is a serious public health risk.

International Responses to Global Waste Trade Issues There have been various international responses to the problems associated with the global waste trade and multiple attempts to regulate it for over thirty years. The hazardous waste trade has proven difficult to regulate as there is so much waste being traded, and laws are often difficult to enforce. Furthermore, there are often large loopholes in these international agreements that allow countries and corporations to dump hazardous wastes in dangerous ways. The most notable attempt to regulate the hazardous waste trade has been the Basel Convention.

International Treaties and Relevant Trade Law

Basel Convention The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that plays a crucial role in regulating the transnational movement of hazardous wastes. The Basel Convention was created in 1989 and attempts to regulate the hazardous waste trade, specifically to prevent the dumping of hazardous waste from more developed countries into less developed countries. The Basel Convention was developed following a series of high-profile cases in which large amounts of toxic waste were dumped into less developed countries, poisoning the people and environment. The Convention seeks to reduce the creation of hazardous wastes, and to control and reduce its trade across borders.

The Convention was opened for signatures on 22 March 1989, and officially entered into force on 5 May 1992. As of May 2014, 180 states and the European Union are parties to the Convention. Haiti and the United States have signed the Convention but not ratified it.

ENFORCE The Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic (ENFORCE) is an agency staffed by relevant experts to promote compliance with the Basel Convention. It is an international body created to deal with transboundary issues of the international hazardous waste trade. Because the issue of the transnational hazardous waste trade crosses many borders and affects many nations, it has been important to have a multinational, multilateral organization presiding over these affairs. The members of ENFORCE include one representative from each of the five United Nations regions that are parties to the Convention as well as five representatives from the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centers, based on equitable geographical representation. Members of organizations such as the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), NGOs working to prevent and stop illegal traffic such as the Basel Action Network (BAN), and many other organizations are also eligible to become members of ENFORCE.

Protocol on Liability and Compensation

In 1999 the Basel Convention passed the Protocol on Liability and Compensation that sought to improve regulatory measures and better protect people from hazardous waste. The Protocol on Liability and Compensation attempts to “assign appropriate liability procedures when the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes result in damages to human health and the environment”. The Protocol “imposes strict liability for damages in situations involving Parties to the Basel Convention, but only while they maintain control of the hazardous waste through their respective notifying, transporting, or disposing entities.” It seeks to regulate and ensure countries’ and corporations’ compliance with the Basel Convention laws. However, this Protocol remains unsigned by most countries, so its applicability is limited.

Lomé IV Convention and Cotonou Agreement

In an effort to protect themselves against unfair hazardous waste dumping, the African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP) signed the Lome IV Convention, which is a supplement to the Basel Convention and prohibits the “export of hazardous wastes from the European Community to ACP States.” This Convention is one attempt by developing countries to protect themselves from Western countries exporting their waste to poorer nations through the hazardous waste trade. When the Lomé IV Convention expired in 2000, the ACP countries and the European countries entered into a new agreement known as the Cotonou Agreement, which “recognizes the existence of disproportionate risks in developing countries and desires to protect against inappropriate hazardous waste shipments to these countries.”

The Bamako Convention

In 1991 multiple developing nations in Africa met to discuss their dissatisfaction with the Basel Convention in regulating the dumping of hazardous waste into their countries, and designed a ban on the import of hazardous wastes into their countries called the Bamako Convention. The Bamako Convention is different from the Basel Convention in that Bamako “essentially bans the import of all hazardous waste generated outside of the OAU [the Organization of African Unity] for disposal or recycling and deems any import from a non-Party to be an illegal act.” However, these countries could not effectively implement the stipulations of the Convention and could not prevent the dump of toxic wastes due to limited resources and a lack of powerful enforcement. Therefore, the application of the Bamako Convention was very limited.

Critiques of these Responses Laura Pratt, expert on the hazardous waste trade, claims that despite local and international attempts to regulate the hazardous waste trade, the “current international agreements, both the widespread, legally binding agreements and the ad hoc agendas among smaller groups of countries, have not been as successful at eliminating toxic waste colonialism as proponents would have hoped.” SHe explains that there are various loopholes in the current system that allow toxic waste to continue being dumped, and toxic colonialism to go unchecked. Some of the problems with these international agreements include continued illegal shipments and unclear definitions of terms.

Fraudulent Shipments and Concealments Pratt explains that despite attempts to regulate illegal dumping, “[o]ftentimes hazardous waste is simply moved under false permits, bribes, improper labels, or even the pretext of 'recycling,' which is a growing trend.” Companies often export their hazardous wastes to poorer countries through illegal smuggling. Attempts to regulate this market have been hindered by a lack of ability to monitor the trade, as many countries do not have any authoritative legislative bodies in place to prevent or punish the illegal trafficking of hazardous wastes. Furthermore, Pratt explains that without coordinated international methods to enforce the regulations, it is extremely difficult for countries to "control the illegal trade of hazardous waste, due to the disparity between enforcement resources and regulation uniformity.” Developing nations still bear the brunt of this illegal activity the most, and often do not have the resources or capability to protect themselves.

Issues with Definitions Another issue with the Basel Convention and other international agreements to regulate the waste trade is the difficulty of establishing clear, uniform definitions regarding wastes. These overly-broad and ambiguous definitions cause problems with the international agreements, as different parties interpret the language of the agreements differently and thus act accordingly. For example, the “‘lack of distinction between ‘waste’ and ‘products’ in the convention and its vague criteria for ‘hazardous’ allowed the continued export of 'hazardous waste’ under the label of commodities or raw materials, despite the fact that these wastes still present environmental and health risks to developing countries.”

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