The Basel Convention: Transboundary Waste

Transboundary waste simply put, is when one country takes its garbage (commonly hazardous waste) and transport it to another country for dumping. This creates a problem when in some cases, this transport and dumping is done illegally, thus having a negative effect on the country receiving the hazardous waste. As a result the Basel Convention was created. It is an agreement between 172 countries revolving around the control of transboundary movement of hazardous materials. The main purpose of the Convention is to reduce the amount of illegal transboundary hazardous waste being shipped between countries, to promote local disposal of hazardous waste, to improve hazardous waste disposal technology. All of these goals combine forming one main goal, to ultimately reduce the amount of transboundary hazardous waste. The Basel Convention so effective in what it is trying to accomplish, that it is widely accepted. Generally, the Convention is non-mandatory and after years of proving its purpose and showing that they can be done, it has set a new standard. As a result, other countries that are not a part of the Convention, still strive to fulfill the Conventions guidelines and goals.


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The Convention has also had an impact on how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) addresses hazardous waste. The EPA has turned away from the view point of following environmental codes, to a progressive approach of becoming more involved in making the codes. Since the EPA is becoming more involved in making the rules, it is also having an effect on how the United States deals with hazardous waste. In addition, the EPA is also working with the Convention by attending Conference of the Parties (COP) as well as the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG). Similar to the purposes of the Convention, these groups work to reform the way hazardous waste is handled and shipped in the world, as well as finding more innovative ways of disposing of the waste. Similarly, the EPA is working with industries and helping governmental agencies establish new laws and regulations regarding the transboundary shipping. With the combination of the Basel Convention and the involvement of the EPA, the United States and the world can begin to progress towards a more hazardous waste free world. Moving towards this goal will help not only the environment, but also the communities that transboundary shipping effects, and help so that hazardous garbage produced from the daily lives of humans is not re-encountered.

Sources:
Guidance Document on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes destined for Recovery Operations

EPA & Basel Convention


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A Brief History of Garbage

Ever since man evolved from a nomadic way of living, to a hunter and gatherer and finally to the more recognizable modern form of life there has been garbage. Whether it is from animal carcasses, bones and rocks, to now-a-days plastics, papers and metals, essentially all things that are left behind in some way or another is garbage. The garbage that we think of today, slow developed as the country developed. When factories were formed, there were scraps of sheet metal, wood, fabric and more, all of which was usually disposed of on the out-skirts of town, where no one had to look upon the dreadful sight. If only that was what our landfills were filled with, instead of the common wrapper, diaper and other non compostable products that not only are an eye sore, but also a health hazard due to the toxins that are emitted into the air, and that are soaked up by the ground.

In fact if you think about it, garbage can be broken down into many subdivisions:
(keep in mind that these are very general, more in a way to understand conceptually versus informational)

Compostable are things you could compost, and eventually make soil for plants and gardens. These in a way are the more household leftovers, like banana peels, egg shells, bread, etc. All of these previous products can then be turned into an end product that can not only benefit the home garden, but also a community garden if distributed to other people. In fact, WSU is not only has a normal composting facility, but they also have a mortality composting facility, where they take the carcasses of animals and create compost with those. (http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb2031e/eb2031e.pdf)




These are fish that are part of a mortality composting operation. Here the fish will decompose and provide nutrients to the soil.
http://organic.tfrec.wsu.edu/compost/Compost%20systems/fish%20waste.jpg


Recyclable “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” Is a saying that has been ingrained into our head ever since the push for more environmentally friendly products being produced, in hopes that the waste would also be environmentally friendly. For recycling these days, it is essentially taking a previous, lets say, piece of paper (as well as tons more) and re-make paper through the paper making process again. It is common to see reams of paper that say 10% recycled, or even some journals that say 100% recycled paper. And paper isn’t the end of the road for recycling, metal is also often recycled. Aluminum cans, old cars, and other metal makings are re-melted to create a type of molten lava that can be poured into molds to form something new.

Hazardous these materials are essentially what humans shouldn’t come in contact with. They can be anything from needles, to bodily fluids garbage, to even atomic waste that must be stored until the radiation is low enough not to cause harm.

Reusable the reusable items are ones that you can take apart and fix a problem rather than just throwing them out. I like to think of these as computers, TV’s and really any other electronic device. Many just need someone who can find out what’s wrong with them, fix the problem, and they will be just as good as new!

Misc. this waste is essentially everything that cannot find a home in the previous four. Usually, this type of garbage fills the landfills which is accumulated to about 67% of garbage (Luke Bassis, University of Michigan), and if the people took the time to, for example, separate their compostable products and keep it out of the garbage, then the landfill would reduce in size tremendously. This is also the type of garbage that creates the most health problems such as poor air quality and ground water leakage in the surrounding area.

How you may ask then is globalization part of this garbage? Well, this previous break down is only in the United States, which is a far more industrialized nation than the other developing ones around the world. The U.S. has gone through many trials and errors in fine-tuning the system for extracting the ‘bad’ waste from the ‘good’ waste. In fact, the Department of Energy’s Waste Management system has been a huge help. However, in countries where their government is less concerned with waste and more concerned with the countries world standing, garbage becomes a large issue. There are many pictures where you see children and adults alike, rummaging through the landfills looking for anything usable in their daily lives. Essentially all the garbage that the country is producing is non-biodegradable, due to lack of money to create systems that can help separate the leftovers into different portions, thus possibly creating the compostable, recyclable, reusable, hazardous and mix waste. This then would help the country become more efficient too. If a country is able to regulate the amount of garbage that is leftover from their different endeavors to become more modernized and industrialized, then they would also be able to better focus on their goals of overcoming their persona of poor and developing.



http://www.em.doe.gov/pdfs/llwrev2.pdf
http://www.em.doe.gov/Pages/wmdi.aspx
http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/wastedisposal.htm
http://www.ecologycenter.org/iptf/southamerica/Problemofplasticreport.html
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1640/1/

The Aftermath of Globalization: The Garbage Left Behind

Garbage is ultimately the useless waste of any product. The wrapper to your fast food burger or the tape that wrapped your Christmas present, both are things that are the leftovers, or the refusals of what was made to hopefully make certain aspects of live easier and more enjoyable. However, the concern comes into play when you consider where these refusals, or waste, go. After all it has to go somewhere, right? Nowadays, technology has advanced to where what was once the waste, can now be safely recycled through compost or even in general, being reprocessed to create something else, such as recycling paper to create other paper products. But what about those items that do not fit into the category of being recycled? What happens when consumers are through with the wrappers? In most cases, they end up in a landfill somewhere off the beaten path of society. In other instances, you can have radioactive waste, or even chemical wastes that appear in all countries fighting to become more than just a territory on a map. Here is where it links to globalization. In countries efforts to create one large global economy, so to say, there are steps in the chain that get skipped or get over looked. After all, how can you expect a barely surviving country to compete to any extent with the United States? The steps that seem to get over looked are those pertaining to the cleanliness of production and the by-products that are associated with producing these goods.
By focusing on this topic, it will be an important factor in fully understanding the production side of globalization. Rather than looking at the big picture and ignoring the details, it is important to see these details, because you can then create the big picture that you ultimately want to see. Thus, the garbage is a key example to a detail that has been overlooked, and by peering more into the depths of the garbage, we can hopefully find the key to making a progression towards globalization.

Inspiration behind the garbage blog:
The Story of Stuff