Highlights and images for 26 June 2024

The world continues to generate ever more waste. If business-as-usual continues, there will be an 80% increase of waste in the world by 2050, with resulting environmental burdens and costs. In plenary discussions Wednesday morning, observers—including an Indonesian e-waste recycling company, Mukti Mandiri Lestari, and a nongovernmental organization, the International Solid Waste Association—highlighted the unique opportunities afforded by the Basel Convention to avoid a global waste crisis, disseminate best practices, and recognize progress where it is being made.

Discussion of national reporting by parties to the Basel Convention then took an unexpected turn as Ukraine invoked Article 9 on illegal transport of waste. Supported by the EU and US, Ukraine protested alleged operations by the Russian Federation to construct three landfill sites in the Donetsk region and six in the Luhansk region for disposing of Russia's household waste, stating that Ukraine had not provided prior informed consent for transboundary movement of waste to these sites.

The Russian Federation responded that the statement represented inappropriate politicization of the Open-ended Working Group's (OEWG) technical work and said the matter should be addressed in a different forum.

Co-Chair Judith Torres (Uruguay) noted these interventions did not relate to the agenda item under which they were raised (national reporting) and would therefore not be included in the meeting report. Ukraine indicated it would not support any meeting report that did not reflect its statement.

Delegates then moved on to discuss proposed changes to the format for national reporting, which are intended to improve the quality of information gathered. Based on Côte d'Ivoire’s suggestion, they recommended developing practical guidance on the development of inventories for national reporting on “biomedical and healthcare waste.”

Delegates also heard an oral update on the status of negotiations toward a possible global plastics treaty, which are due to wrap up in November 2024. They discussed an EU proposal recommending that intersessional work be conducted to assess the effectiveness of measures taken to implement the Basel Convention’s Plastic Waste Amendments. While many parties were in favor, they also noted the need to avoid overlaps. Saudi Arabia stressed that the Basel Convention should limit itself to plastic waste trade, not the lifecycle of plastics. The contact group on Technical Matters will undertake further discussion.

Delegates welcomed the work conducted under the Basel Convention Partnership Programme, which features three partnerships addressing e-waste, household waste, and plastic waste. They agreed to a draft decision inviting further comments from parties, and for the partnerships to continue to develop draft guidance on certain types of television screens (including cathode ray tube, liquid crystal display and light‑emitting diode screens), video and audio equipment, refrigerators, cooling and heating equipment, and environmentally sound management (ESM) of household waste.

In the afternoon, the Technical Matters Contact Group made steady progress in its review of the draft technical guidelines on ESM of waste lead-acid batteries. The Strategic Matters Contact Group discussed the Basel Convention’s new strategic framework, including a possible time frame. The group also discussed a series of potential objectives to guide implementation of Convention activities as well as key indicators to track progress, including whether there should be a per capita indicator on the amount of hazardous and other wastes generated.

Contact group discussions continued into the evening.