Global and National Instruments to Stop the Export and Dumping of Plastic Wastes

Since its inception in 1989, the Basel Convention, the only global treaty on waste and waste trade, failed to control exports of plastic wastes. This was because few considered plastic waste as something concerning enough to control. It was not defined as hazardous waste or “other” waste and few saw the trade in plastic waste as a significant environmental threat. This changed dramatically with new awareness of plastic wastes ending up as marine litter in our oceans and the decision by China in 1918 to ban the import of plastic scrap from all over the world and its subsequent tsunami wave of deflected waste exports. As a result of the new awareness new rules were adopted at Basel in 2019 to strictly control plastic waste trade. New amendments were adopted that were meant to control the trade and management of a vast amount of plastic wastes that had been rejected by China and shunted to developing countries elsewhere in Asia and around the world. Since 2021, these rules have been in force, but sadly we now find a serious lack of their proper implementation and enforcement. Trade data shows non-compliance is widespread. Further, while the plastic amendments were meant to cover all plastic wastes, the Basel Convention has failed to update its listings to apprehend plastic wastes exported under other categories such as textiles, rubber, or paper wastes. Finally, as more is learned about the hazardous characteristics of chemical additives routinely used in plastics, the idea that shipments of mixed plastics with unknown additive content can be considered nonhazardous is becoming more scientifically suspect.