Basel Amendments Create Uncertainty in Global Plastics and E-Waste Markets

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The plastics amendments decision to the Basel Convention will take effect in January 2021 (the Plastic Amendments). It seems that the Plastic Amendments provide more questions than answers in how global markets will adjust to these profound changes surrounding end-of-life plastics and products containing plastic – including electronics and other consumer goods.

What do the plastics amendments do?

Under the Plastics Amendments, end-of-life plastic waste, both homogenous and mixed streams, will now be regulated under the Basel Convention (subject to some exemptions) and their transboundary transfer will either be:

• 
  Prohibited as “hazardous”; or
• Controlled by domestic regulators through disclosure/Prior Informed Consent (PIC) requirements as “other wastes”.

Gone are the days of unregulated transfers of mixed (often municipal) plastic wastes which became the subject of minor international incidents in the months leading up to the Plastics Amendments. But how do exporters of end-of-life plastics know whether their material is banned, controlled, potentially exempt under the convention, or otherwise not considered a waste at all?

Convention “wastes” include resource recovery materials

As a transboundary waste transfer agreement recognizing “the need as far as possible to reduce such movement to a minimum”, material is deemed a “waste” under the convention when subject to a broad spectrum of treatments – including both various disposal-related activities, as well “operations, which may lead to resource recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct re-use or alternative uses”.

Unlike some domestic enabling legislation, the Basel Convention does not have a companion agreement on recyclables so all end-of-life processes are grouped together. Further, the Plastics Amendments have meant that there are now multiple avenues for many post-consumer products containing plastic to fall under the convention.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com