BASEL CONVENTION

Introduction
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and their Disposal was negotiated under the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
beginning in 1989. After the twentieth country ratified the Basel Convention on February 5,
1992, the Convention entered into force on May 5, 1992. As of May 2006, 170 states were
Parties to the Convention. The Convention's main goal is to protect human health and the
environment from hazards posed by transboundary movements of hazardous waste. The
negotiators of the Convention wanted to increase concern over environmentally sound
management of waste across international frontier, especially in industrializing countries.
In addition, the Basel Convention also seeks a reduction in waste generation, a
reduction in transboundary waste movements, and a standard set of controls for waste
movements.The Convention requires that the exporting country notify the receiving country
and any transit countries of the proposed shipment. The waste shipment may occur only after
the transit and receiving countries have given permission for the shipment. The Convention
requires that the waste shipment to be accompanied with a tracking document, or movement
document from its point of origin until its disposal plan. Furthermore, shipments of waste
must be packaged, labeled, and transported based on international rules. If an accident occurs
during the shipment of the waste, Basel requires that the responsible parties inform the
potentially affected countries of the accident. Finally, parties to the Convention must submit
an annual report to the Basel Secretariat summarizing the amounts and types of hazardous
waste exported and the destination and disposal methods.

Basel Restrictions
The Basel Convention contains two significant restriction on waste movements. The first
restriction requires that exports of waste occur only under the following circumstances:
1. If the exporting country does not have adaquate disposal capacity
2. If the exporting country does not have disposal sites that can dispose of the waste in
an environmentally sound manner
3. If the wastes are required as a raw material for recycling or recovery industries in the
importing country.
Secondly, Basel prohibits movement of waste between parties to the convention and nonparties, unless there was an equivalent bilateral or multilateral agreement between them
which provide equally sound management structure for transboundary movements of waste.

Malaysias Participation in Basel Convention

Malaysia became host for the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the
Convention which was held in Kuching, Malaysia, from 23 to 27 February 1998. 1 At meeting,
1
http://www.basel.int/Countries/StatusofRatifications/PartiesSignatories/tabid/4499
/Default.aspx

the Parties proposed an amendment to Annex I of the Convention (The categories of wastes
and the hazardous characteristics) and adopted two new Annexes, VIII and IX (Lists of
specific wastes characterized as hazardous or non-hazardous).2

On 31 January 1995, Malaysia signed one out of three declaration pertaining the
transboundary movement of hazardous wastes. Malaysia declare the following:3
1. The signatories to this Convention affirm their strong determination that wastes should be
disposed of in the country of production.
2. The signatories to this Convention request States which accede to the Convention to do so,
by making every possible effort to effect a gradual cessation of the import and export of
wastes for reasons other than their disposal in facilities which will be set up within the
framework of regional cooperation.
3. The signatories to this Convention will not permit wastes to be imported to or exported
from countries deficient in the technical, administrative and legal expertise in administering
wastes and disposing of them in an environmentally sound manner.
4. The signatories to this Convention affirm the importance of assistance to develop
appropriate facilities intended for the final disposal of wastes produced by countries referred
to in paragraph 3 above.
5. The signatories to this Convention stress the need to take effective measures within the
framework of the Convention to enable wastes to be reduced to the lowest possible level and
to be recycled.

Application of Basel Convention in Malaysia

In order to show commitment on Basel Convention, in 1996, Malaysia amended Section 34B
of the Environmental Quality Act 1974. This section prohibits export and import of hazardous
waste in or out Malaysia without permission from the Director General of Department of
Environment. This amendment is in line with declaration signed by Malaysia then in 1995.
As December 31, 2008 the Malaysian government cease to accept any cathode ray
tube (CRT) glass from the United States. The reason behind the decision is Malaysia as a
party to the Basel Convention are legally bound by Article 4, Paragraph 5 not to trade in
Basel wastes with non-Party such as the United States. The Basel Convention in Article 4,
Paragraph 5 stated that:
A Party shall not permit hazardous wastes or other wastes to be exported to a non-Party or
to be imported from a non-Party.
To date, the United States has signed the Basel Convention, but has yet to ratify the
Convention. In order for the United States to become a Basel party, it must ratify the
2 http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/international/basel3.htm
3
http://www.basel.int/Countries/StatusofRatifications/PartiesSignatories/tabid/4499
/Default.aspx

Convention and have sufficient authority to implement Basel's terms. For this reason,
Malaysia cannot participate in waste transfers with non-Basel Parties without a separate and
equivalent bilateral or multilateral agreement.

In 2012 there was controversial issue regarding a rare-earth processing plant in

Gebeng, Kuantan known as Lynas. The company of the project which is an international
company from Australia, Lynas Corporations plan to send abroad the residues (one of them
contain radioactive materials exceeding the permissible level set by the International Atomic
Energy Agency) produced at its proposed plant if it failed to find a suitable location in
Malaysia to build a permanent disposal facility. This plan received huge critics as regulations
under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Basel Convention prohibited
Lynas from transporting its waste to another country. Although the Basel Convention, of
which both Malaysia and Australia are signatories, provides guidelines for transboundary
movements of hazardous waste and its disposal, the Australian government had in April 2011
declared it will not accept any waste from Lynas, despite the rare earth being mined in Mount
Weld.4

4 https://envdevmalaysia.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/basel-convention-prohibitslynas-from-transporting-waste-abroad/