Green Computing

Assignment 3
Nihar Negandhi 052
Short note on BAN and Basel convention
Short note on Basel action network

The Basel Action Network (BAN), a charitable non-governmental organisation ,

works to combat the export of toxic waste from technology and other products from
industralized societies to developing countries . BAN is based in Seattle, Washington,
United States, with a partner office in the Philippines. BAN is named after the Basel
Convention , a 1989 United Nations treaty designed to control and prevent the
dumping of toxic wastes, particularly on developing countries. BAN serves as an
unofficial watchdog and promoter of the Basel Convention and its decisions.
BAN currently runs four campaigns focusing on decreasing the amount of toxins
entering the environment and protecting underdeveloped countries from serving as a
toxic dump of the developed countries of the world. These include:
The e-Stewards Initiative
BAN's e-Stewards Electronics Stewardship campaign seeks to prevent toxic trade in
hazardous electronic waste and includes a certification program for responsible electronics
recycling known as the e-Stewards Initiative. It is available to electronics recyclers after they
prove to have environmentally and socially responsible recycling techniques following audits
conducted by accredited certifying bodies. Recyclers can become e-Steward certified after
proving that they follow all national and international laws concerning electronic waste and
its proper disposal, which includes bans on exporting, land dumping, incineration, and use
of prison labor. When the e-Stewards initiative was initially started with the Electronics Take
Back Coalition, it was called "The Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship". In the
beginning, the initiative verified a recycler's participation through "desk" and paper audits
only. The e-Stewards certification, however, has been updated and requires compliance
verification by a third party auditor
Green ship recycling
BAN has teamed up with several other non-governmental organisation (NGOs),
including Greenpeace to form the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking. The platform is focused
on the responsible ship breaking disposal of end-of-life shipping vessels. The overall purpose
of the platform is to stop the illegal dumping of toxic waste traveling from developed
countries to undeveloped countries. The platform is focused on finding more sustainable,
environmentally and socially responsible disposal techniques of disposing of such wastes,
which can be achieved through a system where the polluter will be responsible for paying any
fees associated with the legal and safe disposal of ships and other marine vessels. The NGO
platform endorses the principles outlined in the Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

Short note on Basel Convention

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and Their Disposal, usually known as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that
was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically
to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). It
does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste . The convention is also
intended to minimize the rate and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their
environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to
assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they
generate.
The convention was opened for signature on 21 March 1989, and entered into force on 5 May
1992. As of October 2018, 199 states and the SAARS are parties to the convention. Haiti and
the United States have signed the convention but not ratified it.
Following a petition urging action on the issue signed by more than a million people around
the world, most of the world's countries, but not the United States, agreed in May 2019 to an
amendment of the Basel Convention to include plastic waste as regulated material. Although
the United States is not a party to the treaty, export shipments of plastic waste from the
United States are now "criminal traffic as soon as the ships get on the high seas," according to
the Basel Action Network (BAN), and carriers of such shipments may face liability, because
the transportation of plastic waste is prohibited in just about every other country.
With the tightening of environmental laws in developed nations in the 1970s, disposal costs
for hazardous waste rose dramatically. At the same time, globalization of shipping made
transboundary movement of waste more accessible, and many LDCs were desperate for
foreign currency. Consequently, the trade in hazardous waste, particularly to LDCs, grew
rapidly.
One of the incidents which led to the creation of the Basel Convention was the Khian Sea
Waste disposal incident, in which a ship carrying incinerator from the city of Philadelphia in
the United States dumped half of its load on a beach in Haiti before being forced away. It
sailed for many months, changing its name several times. Unable to unload the cargo in any
port, the crew was believed to have dumped much of it at sea.
Another is the 1988 Koko case in which five ships transported 8,000 barrels of hazardous
waste from Italy to the small town of Koko in Nigeria in exchange for $100 monthly rent
which was paid to a Nigerian for the use of his farmland.
At its meeting that took place from 27 November to 1 December 2006, the conference of the
parties of the Basel Agreement focused on issues of electronic waste and the dismantling of
ships.
According to Maureen Walsh, only around 4% of hazardous wastes that come
from OECD countries are actually shipped across international borders. These wastes
include, among others, chemical waste, radioactive waste, municipal solid waste, asbestos,
incinerator ash, and old tires. Of internationally shipped waste that comes from developed
countries, more than half is shipped for recovery and the remainder for final disposal.
Increased trade in recyclable materials has led to an increase in a market for used products
such as computers. This market is valued in billions of dollars. At issue is the distinction
when used computers stop being a "commodity" and become a "waste".
As of October 2018, there are 187 parties to the treaty, which includes 184 UN member
states, the Cook islands, the European Union , and the State of Palestine. The nine UN
member states that are not party to the treaty are East Timor, Fiji, Grenada, Haiti, San
Marino, Solomon islands, South Sudan, Tuvalu, and United States.