basel convention

Why Australia needs to be aware of the right and wrong way to recycle their electronic waste.

According to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the exportation of electronic waste to developing countries is illegal. 92 Countries around the world have ratified the Basel Convention, agreeing not to export their ewaste without the appropriate licenses in place. However, a Greenpeace report states that after “inspections of 18 European seaports in 2005, as much as 47% of waste destined for export, including ewaste, were illegal.” The practise of exporting electronic waste therefore, is clearly continuing despite the regulations of the Basel Convention, and it’s not just the law that this illegal trade is

By |2023-05-08T18:14:39+10:00May 8th, 2023|Ewaste Articles|

Protecting your electronic waste from “fake” recyclers.

In our previous article on Fake Ewaste Recycling, we highlighted the issue of fake recycling companies illegally exporting electronic waste and the damage they were causing to public health and the environment. It can be easy to shrug off the damage our Ewaste is doing overseas by claiming that it doesn’t affect you, and possibly that we are helping their economy by providing employment for poverty stricken areas.  A report for PBS however, reveals that the downsides of illegal exporting is closer to home than we think. The report suggested that criminal organisations in Ghana "comb through" the electronic waste exported from the U.S

By |2020-11-29T19:27:55+11:00November 29th, 2020|Ewaste Articles|

The future of electronic waste recycling.

When it comes to electronic waste, it’s quite clear that we need to do something soon. The United Nations estimates that up to 50 million tonnes of electronic waste are thrown away globally each year, and the amount ending up in landfill is on the rise. In 2009, 234 million items of ewaste were on their way to the tip in Australia alone, which was 41 million more than was estimated. A report prepared by The Total Environment Centre and Environment Victoria predicts that without an introduction of an ewaste recycling programme, the amount of ewaste in Australian landfills will treble by 2020 and

By |2020-10-18T14:19:23+11:00September 20th, 2020|Ewaste Articles|

The Basel Convention – Combating the illegal trafficking of hazardous waste.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was brought into force in 1992 in order to prevent the transportation of hazardous wastes to developing countries. Over 170 countries have now joined the convention, including Australia who became a member of the Basel Convention on the 5th February 1992. Transportation of hazardous waste received much negative press throughout the 1980’s with several high profile cases regarding the shipment of toxic waste. One such story involved the Khian Sea ship which, in 1986, spent 16 months sailing around the world with 14, 000 tonnes of toxic ash from

By |2020-10-18T14:30:43+11:00June 28th, 2020|Ewaste Articles|

Is Australia lagging behind when it comes to ewaste legislation?

In a world where we update our technology almost as often as we change out socks, you’d think that getting rid of ewaste would be getting easier. But it seems that, in Australia, we’re falling behind in our race against ewaste. The Australian government published a fact sheet on their National Waste Policy that stated that “waste generation has continued to grow and our increased efforts at recycling and reuse are not keeping up”. However, if you’ve ever struggled to get rid of your electronic waste, you’ll understand us when we question what “increased efforts” the government is talking about here. It

By |2020-01-26T08:24:45+11:00January 26th, 2020|Ewaste Articles|
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