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International shipments of waste and the environment

Environmental News 01 Apr 2009

Waste is on the move.  Waste paper, plastics and metals are being shipped in increasing amounts from developed countries to countries with less stringent environmental standards.  Rather than sail back empty, huge ships carrying goods from emerging markets are taking waste products from Europe to be recycled back in Asia. 

These shipments of waste are still being highly regulated.  The UN and EU have strict rules on what can be shipped where.  The UN’s Basel Convention is responsible for regulating global level international trade of hazardous wastes.  The ban contained in this convention has not been signed by enough countries to bring it into force globally.  However due to EU restrictions, hazardous wastes are only allowed to be exported to developed countries where the necessary technologies exist and sufficient safety and environmental laws are enforced. 

Long term, the EU aims to have each member state disposing of its waste domestically – however, as shipments of hazardous waste for disposal from EU member states nearly quadrupled between 1997- 2005; this aim has yet to be fulfilled. 

There are many varying factors driving the import and export of waste; availability of special treatment technology, shortage of materials, differences in prices for disposal or recovery.
EU policy, setting targets for recycling, also leads to waste shipments from member states who cannot meet their targets at home.  Costs are being kept low due to the volumes of waste on the market for China, who need cheap raw materials.  This trade is deemed acceptable as long as the waste is not for disposal at its destination and does not contain hazardous material.

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