International meeting on hazardous waste begins
By admin on Jun 23, 2008 in Hazardous Waste, Featured, Environment, News
An international waste management meeting is being held in Bali, Indonesia to highlight the dangers of hazardous waste. The five-day meeting with ministers from nearly 170 countries will focus on the impact hazardous waste has on human health and livelihoods. They will also be considering setting up a new body on electronic and computer waste.
The conference was opened by Indonesian Environment Minister Rahmat Witoelar, who said that his country was particularly exposed to the illegal dumping of toxic waste.
“Due to its archipelagic nature, with the second longest coastal line in the world, Indonesia is vulnerable to illegal traffic of transboundary hazardous waste,” he said.
The meeting is organised under the UN Basel Convention, an international treaty regulating the global trade in hazardous waste with the aim of minimising its generation and movement across borders.
The talks come as Greenpeace has been campaigning against the flow of US computer waste to China.
The group says unprotected workers in China melt circuit boards to retrieve precious metals, risking their health.
China has ratified the Basel Convention, but Greenpeace says a large volume of shipping traffic into southern China - often via Hong Kong - makes smuggling into the country easy.
Participants at the meeting are expected to adopt a “Bali Declaration”, highlighting the importance of health and waste management for global development strategies such as reducing poverty.
“As we are all too often reminded, hazardous wastes continue to pose serious risks for human health and the environment,” said Basel Convention Executive Secretary Katharina Kummer Peiry.
“It is especially important that this meeting reaffirms the undeniable interdependence between environmentally sound waste management and the achievement of sustainable development, especially for those who need it the most.”
