The reported data on transboundary movements provide a rather good picture of the amounts of hazardous and other wastes generated and subject to transboundary movements globally. The following analysis shows that there has been progress on a number of issues addressed by the Convention, in particular in relation to the following points:

• Transboundary movements are increasing, but the vast majority of hazardous and other wastes is still treated within the country of origin and if waste is exported it stays, in most cases, within the same geographical region - in line with the principle of reducing to a minimum transboundary movements;
• Most of the waste that is moved across borders is moved for operations to recover, recycle, reclaim, make direct re-use or alternative use of the wastes concerned. From the information available, it appears that presently only high income member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (hereafter ‘OECD countries’) allow significant amounts of hazardous and other wastes to be imported for final disposal. It therefore may be assumed that these Parties would only accept such imports if they could treat these wastes in an environmentally sound manner;
• Imports of hazardous wastes by developing countries and countries with economies in transition are decreasing and exports from those countries to developed countries, where it is assumed these wastes can be treated in an environmentally sound manner, are increasing. Even though the ban on export of hazardous wastes from developed countries to developing countries adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention has not yet entered into force, such transboundary movements are already decreasing. The trends observed may, at least partly, be caused by underreporting by Parties.
• There is no evidence that significant amounts of hazardous wastes are being transferred from richer countries to poorer countries.

There are also areas where further progress may be needed:

• Continuous efforts should be made to encourage Parties to transmit their national reports to the Secretariat and to improve the quality and comparability of data in such reports;
• The quantitative information presently received about transboundary movements is satisfactory, but more information is needed about the generation of hazardous wastes and the quality of treatment in the states of import, to be able to assess if the goal of environmentally sound management of wastes is being achieved.
• More information on illegal movements should be made available and analyzed more systematically to detect areas of implementation of the Convention where further improvement could be made.

Download
English: