Basel Convention

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal was adopted on 22 March 1989 in Basel, Switzerland, and entered into force on 5 May 1992. It was negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in response to public outcry over toxic waste dumping incidents in developing countries during the 1980s, including the Khian Sea incinerator-ash affair and waste shipments to Koko, Nigeria.

The Convention's core obligations require that transboundary shipments of hazardous and other wastes proceed only with the prior informed consent (PIC) of the importing state and any transit states. Parties must minimize waste generation, ensure environmentally sound management (ESM), and prohibit exports to states that have banned imports or that lack capacity for ESM. Exports to non-Parties are generally forbidden unless governed by an equivalent bilateral or multilateral agreement.

Key developments include:

• The Ban Amendment (adopted 1995), which prohibits hazardous waste exports from Annex VII countries (OECD, EU, Liechtenstein) to non-Annex VII countries; it entered into force on 5 December 2019 after Croatia's ratification triggered the three-fourths threshold.
• The Basel Protocol on Liability and Compensation (adopted 1999), which has not entered into force.
• The Plastic Waste Amendments (adopted 2019, effective 1 January 2021), which brought most contaminated and mixed plastic scrap under the PIC procedure, significantly reshaping global recycling flows.
• The e-waste amendments adopted in 2022, expanding controls over electronic waste streams.

The Convention is administered by a Secretariat in Geneva and governed by a Conference of the Parties (COP) that meets biennially, often jointly with the Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions under the "BRS" cluster. As of the early 2020s it has near-universal membership, though the United States has signed but not ratified. Compliance is overseen by an Implementation and Compliance Committee, and enforcement relies primarily on national legislation such as the EU Waste Shipment Regulation.