Waste Exports

In 1992 the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal came into force (www.basel.int or www.umweltbundesamt.de/index-e.htm (section on EC Waste Shipments Regulation)).

Meanwhile, more than 170 states and the European Community have become Parties to the Convention (http://www.basel.int/ratif/frsetmain.php).

The Convention seeks to achieve on a worldwide scale environmentally sound waste management and the control of transboundary shipments of hazardous wastes. The EU has implemented the Basel Convention in binding legal form for all its Member States in the EC Waste Shipments Regulation which entered into force in 1993 (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/shipments/index.htm). The work of the OECD in connection with exports of waste also plays an important role here.

Supplementary provisions for the Federal Republic of Germany are contained in the Waste Shipments Act of 1994.

A Liability Protocol to the Basel Convention was approved in 1999. This provides for worldwide regulation of claims for damages in respect of environmental and health damage arising in the country of destination from exports of waste.

The success of this policy is unmistakable: there has been a dramatic reduction in criminal exports of waste.

Further Information:

• Further development of European rules and regulations on the shipments of waste