Preserving Public Health: Strengthening Hazardous Waste Rules for a Safer Future

Introduction

With the increase in the world population, the consumption is increasing. To fulfill the increasing consumption more raw materials are required to undergo industrial processes so that more finished goods can be produced. Waste is the outcome of certain industrial processes. Since waste is not useful it either needs to be treated and disposed or recycled or reutilized into other processes as raw material. But this reutilizing and recycling also has certain ghost costs which we cannot see, the ghost costs include cost to health, biodiversity, climate change, amenities (UNEP, 2012, p. 24). Above ghost costs are lesser for non-hazardous waste as compared to hazardous waste, especially when the hazardous waste is dumped illegally and without adhering to the law of the land. Africa witnessed this during the late 1900s wherein lot of northern based firms had started to dump hazardous waste in African countries (Jennifer Clapp, 1994, p. 19). What were the reasons for dumping hazardous waste in African countries? The answer is two-fold, first, increased public awareness within industrialized countries and the manifestation of not-in-my-backyard-syndrome and second, the increased cost of disposal in the industrialized countries (Jennifer Clapp, 1994, p. 19). Since Africa had weak regulation and law regarding hazardous waste disposal it quickly became a dumping ground for hazardous waste. Thus, we see a weak regulation coupled with lax policy leading Africa to be perceived as a dumping ground by the developed world. This perception damaged not only the environment of Africa but also the public health of Africa as a whole. Increased awareness and not-in-my backyard syndrome also forced developing countries to export the waste to other countries (MARK N. WEXLER, 1996, p. 93).

The ill effects of dumping were seen by many other developing countries as well, the media publicized it and as a result developing countries had to establish national mechanisms to control the waste trade. The world was divided in two camps when it came to establishing regulatory mechanisms and this came to light during the negotiation of the Basel Convention. The developing wanted a complete ban on the trade of hazardous waste, the reasons for pursuing such approach was that they had already seen the ills of dumping and did not want the practice to continue any longer. The developed countries, on the other hand, involved in waste producing and dealing firms wanted the waste trade to be legal and without restrictions (Jennifer Clapp, 1994, p. 23). The mechanism to regulate the hazardous waste was accepted by the United Nations Environment Program and the Basel Convention was established as a consequence that ‘regulated’ the transborder movement of hazardous wastes and worked on the principle of Prior Informed Consent (Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, 1989). Based on this principle, the importing party must be notified about the shipment containing hazardous waste in advance. The transaction can take place only if the importing nation agrees to accept the waste, and ensures that the waste shall be disposed off in an environmentally sound manner (Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, 1989, art. 2(e), 2(g), 10). African countries were not in agreement with the Basel outcome and therefore created their own convention that showed to the world that Africa would not condone the practice of promoting hazardous waste trade. Africa thus postulated for the Bamako Convention which placed a ban on the import and export of hazardous waste to and from Africa (Bamako Convention on The Ban of The Import into Africa and The Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes Within Africa, 1998, bk. 4(2)(a)). This raises a question, pursuant to the adoption of the Bamako convention, was illegal dumping stopped in Africa? Simply put, dumping of hazardous wastes in Africa has not stopped rather, the waste traders have made the dumping difficult to trace by labelling it as “recycling” and “recovery” These loopholes have plagued both the Basel convention and the Bamako convention equally (Jennifer Clapp, 1994, p. 30). The Abijdan controversy is a standing example of the statement wherein despite the strongly worded Bamako convention, waste was dumped illegally on the Ivory coast in the year 2006.