=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #257
—October 30, 1991—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
==========
The Back issues and Index
are available
here.
The official RACHEL archive is here.
It’s updated constantly.
To subscribe, send E-mail to rachel-
weekly-
request@world.std.com
with the single word SUBSCRIBE in the message. It’s free.
===Previous Issue==========================================Next Issue===
INTERNATIONAL WASTE TRADE–PART 2:
THE STRUGGLE TO BAN THE WASTE TRADE
By December, 1989, George Kouros, a Chicago businessman, hoped to
have 15 to 20 ships bound for Brazil, Chile, and maybe an African
country or two, each carrying thousands of tons of garbage from
the East coast of the U.S.
Although he had no experience in the waste business, Mr. Kouros
knew an opportunity when he saw one, and he figured he’d take in
$150 million in revenues his first year, so he spent 1989 lining
up ships and waste contracts. But by the time he got all his
ducks in order, he found that much of the world had closed its
doors to waste traders.[1]
After roughly five years of skyrocketing growth in the
international trade in wastes, over 80 countries slammed their
doors shut on the waste traders in 1989. As we will see below,
President George Bush and few of his friends in Congress are now
doing their best to crowbar those doors back open, but for now
many remain shut.
Background
In 1989, 68 less-industrialized countries from Africa, the
Caribbean, and the Pacific (together known as the ACP countries)
joined with officials from the European Economic Community (EEC)
in a treaty prohibiting the international trade in wastes.[2] The
agreement, known as the Lom IV Convention, bans all shipment of
hazardous or radioactive wastes from EEC countries to ACP
countries. In addition, the ACP countries agreed not to import
any wastes from non-EEC countries.
The Lom Convention is the first international treaty to ban the
trade in radioactive wastes, and the first commitment by EEC
countries to ban waste exports.
Another key event of 1989 was the signing of the Basel Convention
on hazardous waste by representatives of 23 nations on March 22.[3]
The Basel Convention definitely did not ban the international
shipment of waste; instead it merely required that waste
exporters must receive written consent from the receiving
country. Officials from many Latin American, Asian, Pacific and
Middle Eastern nations refused to sign the Basel Convention
because they said it merely legalized and legitimized the
international trade in wastes, instead of banning such trade.
Many countries insisted on nothing less than a total ban on waste
imports and exports. “Industrialized countries had the power to
stop waste exports to the Third World; instead they opted to
institutionalize them,” says Jim Puckett, Greenpeace’s European
waste trade coordinator.
Most EEC countries, and the U.S. already had laws on the books
requiring waste exporters to receive permission from the
recipient country, so Basel did not represent much that was new.
Basel did, however, contain a strict, broad, and comprehensive
definition of what is a hazardous waste. Third-world countries
and environmental groups argued that the Basel Convention did
little more than legalize and legitimize toxic terrorism, but
heavily industrialized nations recognized the Basel waste
definition as a threat to business-as-usual.
Africa’s Response to Basel
January 29, 1991, African nations reacted to the weak Basel
Convention by passing a strong, progressive waste import
agreement that promises to close most of the African continent to
waste traders.[4] Convened under the auspices of the Organization
of African Unity (OAU), which includes every African nation
except South Africa and Morocco, the treaty is called the “Bamako
Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control
of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes
Within Africa,” named for Bamako in Mali, where the OAU delegates
met to hammer out the details.
The “Bamako Convention,” as it is known, is by far the strongest
control measure on wastes ever passed. It contains the following
features:
** Bans the import of hazardous waste, including radioactive
waste, and declares such import a “criminal act;”
** Bans the import of hazardous substances that have been banned,
canceled or refused registration, or have been voluntarily
withdrawn in the country of manufacture for human health or
environmental reasons;
** Bans ocean dumping and ocean incineration as well as seabed
and sub-seabed disposal of wastes;
** Imposes strict, unlimited, joint and several liability on
hazardous waste generators; this means that a waste generator
retains responsibility and legal liability for a generated waste.
Anyone hurt by the waste need not prove that the generator of the
waste was negligent. If several waste generators mix their wastes
together (as in a dump), each one is individually liable for all
damages caused by the whole mess.
** Commits African nations to “strive to adopt and implement the
preventive, precautionary approach to pollution problems which
entails, [among other things,] preventing the release of
substances which may cause harm to humans or the environment
without waiting for scientific proof regarding such harm. The
Parties shall co-operate with each other in taking the
appropriate measures to implement the precautionary principle to
pollution prevention through the application of clean production
methods, rather than the pursuit of a permissible emissions
approach based on assimilative capacity assumptions.”
This last provision needs an explanation because it is such a
simple description of a path-breaking new approach to chemical
regulation. The Precautionary Principle assumes chemicals are
dangerous until proven safe. Present U.S. policy has it the other
way around, which guarantees that we will have massive damage and
millions of victims poisoned before chemicals are brought under
control or are banned. The Bamako Convention is the first legal
document to embody the Precautionary Principle, setting the stage
for others to do the same. It foretells a revolution in the
control of toxics.
The U.S. Response to Basel
Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum from Bamako, President
George Bush is promoting legislation that will cut the heart out
of even the bland and tepid Basel Convention. The one thing that
Basel did right was include a comprehensive definition of
hazardous substances. But Basel contains a provision that says
when the convention is finally ratified, it will not overrule any
waste-trade agreements then in existence, even if they are weaker
than the Basel provisions.
January 31, 1991 the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development–an organization of 19 highly-developed
countries, including the U.S.) adopted “Decision-Recommendation
of the Council on the Reduction of Trans-frontier Movements of
Wastes.” The OECD Decision classifies wastes into three
categories–red, amber, and green. Green-class and amber-class
wastes will be regulated less strictly than the Basel convention
requires, or will be entirely exempt from all regulation. The
OECD Decision is clearly intended to undercut the Basel
Convention.
The Bush Administration is seeking to turn the OECD Decision into
reality. Bush has proposed weak, dangerous legislation in the
U.S. Congress (H.R. 2398 and Senate bill 1082).
Competing legislation, introduced by Representative Edolphus
(“Ed”) Towns–H.R. 2580–would simply ban U.S. export (and
import) of all dangerous wastes.[5] This bill deserves strong
support.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
===============
[1] Bill Lambrecht, “Nations Think Twice on Trading in Trash,”
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH December 31, 1989, pg. 1A.
Descriptor terms: international waste trade; george kouros;
africa; caribbean; pacific; acp countries; eec; european economic
community; lome iv convention; radioactive waste; hazardous
waste; basel convention; bans; imports; exports; developing
countries; industrialized countries; organization of african
unity; oau; bamako convention on the ban of the import into
africa and the control of transboundary movement and management
of hazardous wastes within africa; bamako convention; hazardous
materials; ocean dumping; ocean incineration; waste treatment
technologies; waste disposal technologies; precautionary
principle; oecd; organization for economic cooperation and
development; greenpeace;