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Ecology

Basel Convention

The main global treaty on shipping hazardous wastes across borders. Parties must ensure environmentally sound management, use prior informed consent for covered shipments, and treat illegal traffic as a crime. The United Nations Treaty Collection lists 191 Parties.

Sunset over the Rhine in Basel, Switzerland, the city where the hazardous wastes convention was adopted.
Sunset over the Rhine in Basel, Switzerland, the city where the hazardous wastes convention was adopted. Photo: Taxiarchos228, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped by Fix Planet. Licence: Free Art License
Ecology Existing / enacted International (parties to the Convention; the Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary)

Official name: Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal
Citation: Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; adopted at Basel on 22 March 1989; entered into force on 5 May 1992
Year / status: Adopted at Basel on 22 March 1989. Entered into force on 5 May 1992.

What it does

The Basel Convention is a United Nations environment treaty that controls movements of hazardous wastes and certain other wastes between countries and sets duties for their disposal. It was adopted in Basel, Switzerland, on 22 March 1989 and entered into force on 5 May 1992. A secretariat in Geneva, shared with the Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, supports the Parties. Annexes define which wastes are covered, and later decisions have updated those lists, including for plastic wastes that need special consideration.

Where it applies / status

A transboundary movement covered by the Convention needs notification and consent among the States concerned before shipment. The Ban Amendment of 1995 further restricts exports of hazardous wastes from certain countries to others and applies to the Parties that have accepted it, so each Party's own acceptance decides whether it is bound. New plastic waste entries in the annexes took effect on 1 January 2021. The United Nations Treaty Collection (Chapter XXVII, No. 3) showed 53 signatories and 191 Parties at its status date of 1 October 2026.

Documented benefits or intended effects

Hazardous wastes shipped without consent or dumped where they cannot be handled safely harm people and ecosystems, often far from where the waste was produced. The Convention requires Parties to minimise the generation of hazardous wastes, to manage them in an environmentally sound way as close as possible to the source, and to allow exports only when the importing State has consented in advance and can manage the wastes properly. Illegal traffic is to be prevented and punished under national law.

Caveats

The United States of America signed the Convention but has not become a Party. Some States made declarations on navigation and the passage of ships. Amendments to annexes can apply on different dates for Parties that lodge notifications. The Convention sets international duties that Parties put into their own waste laws. Membership figures change, and the depositary page holds the current list.

Sources

United Nations Treaty Collection record, the secretariat overview, the page on the 1995 amendment, the page on the plastic waste amendments, and the photograph.