The global waste trade is the movement of waste between countries for treatment, disposal, or recycling. Often, developing countries receive toxic or hazardous waste from developed countries.
The World Bank Report What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management explains how much solid waste is produced in different countries. It states that countries with more economic development and higher levels of industrialization produce more solid waste. The report notes, "Generally, the higher the economic development and rate of urbanization, the greater the amount of solid waste produced." As a result, countries in the Global North, which are more developed and urbanized, produce more solid waste than countries in the Global South.
Today, waste flows in international trade often follow a pattern: waste is created in the Global North and then sent to the Global South for disposal. Many factors influence which countries produce waste and how much, including geography, industrialization levels, and how connected a country is to the global economy.
Many scholars and researchers have connected the rise in waste trading and its harmful effects to the spread of neoliberal economic policies. After the major shift toward neoliberal policies in the 1980s, free-market policies helped increase the global waste trade.
Specifically, developing countries have been encouraged by trade liberalization policies to import waste as a way to grow their economies. Neoliberal policies suggest that smaller countries, which may have less infrastructure, less wealth, and fewer manufacturing industries, should accept hazardous waste to increase profits and boost their economies.
Current debate over global waste trade
Current supporters of global waste trade say that bringing waste into a country is a business deal that can help countries with few resources. These countries often cannot make high-quality products, so they may import waste to help their economy grow.
In 1991, Lawrence Summers, who was then the leader of Harvard University and top economist at the World Bank, wrote a secret letter supporting global waste trade. The letter said that economic benefits are the main reason for supporting this trade. An article by the Cato Institute, which supports global waste trade, stated that there is little proof that dangerous waste, which can cause cancer, increases death rates in poorer countries. The article also said that people in poorer countries might accept more exposure to harmful waste if it helps them earn more money and improve their productivity.
Supporters of global waste trade believe that poorer countries need to grow their economies. They say that by trading waste, these countries can expand their economies and make more money.
People who oppose global waste trade argue that poor rules and bad policies have turned some developing countries into places where dangerous waste is dumped. As more hazardous waste is sent to these countries, people there face greater risks. Critics say that most dangerous waste is made in wealthy countries like the United States and Europe, but the people who suffer from the effects of this waste are in poorer countries that did not create it.
Peter Newell, a professor who studies development, says that environmental inequality worsens and shows other forms of unfair treatment based on class, race, and gender. Critics argue that the harmful effects of waste trade hurt people who are already disadvantaged, such as people of color, women, and those with low incomes.
Many activists, organizers, and environmentalists in the Global South have criticized global waste trade policies. Evo Morales, who was once president of Bolivia, said that the current economic system forces his country and people to be exploited. He argued that this system is unfair.
Jean Francois Kouadio, a man from the Ivory Coast who lives near a toxic waste site, shared his experience with the effects of waste in his community. He said that two of his children died from health problems caused by toxic waste. His second daughter, Ama Grace, died from a condition called acute glycemia, which doctors linked to the waste.
Scholars in wealthy countries also criticize how waste trade harms people unevenly. Dorceta Taylor, a professor at the University of Michigan, says that women of color in the United States are especially affected by these policies.
T.V. Reed, a professor at Washington State University, explains that the connection between past colonialism and modern waste dumping is based on the idea that indigenous lands are seen as "waste." He says that Western cultures have long viewed these lands as "underdeveloped" and the people living there as less "civilized." This thinking continues today through toxic colonialism, which uses the same ideas to treat Global South countries as places where waste can be safely dumped.
Toxic colonialism is when rich countries use poor countries as cheap places to send or get rid of dangerous waste. This practice is a form of unfair trade that keeps global inequality alive. The term "toxic colonialism" is used because it shares features of past colonialism, such as economic dependence, unfair labor practices, and cultural inequality, but now applies to the way waste is handled.
Electronic waste
Electronic waste, or e-waste, is the name for old or broken electrical and electronic devices that are no longer used. The amount of e-waste worldwide is growing quickly because of faster technology, changes in how people use media (like tapes, software, and MP3s), lower prices for electronics, and the way some products are made to stop working after a short time. About 50 million tons of e-waste are created each year, with most of it coming from the United States and Europe. Much of this waste is sent to developing countries in Asia and Africa to be sorted and recycled.
Studies have looked at how e-waste affects the environment and people’s health near places where it is dumped. Heavy metals and harmful chemicals from broken electronics can leak into nearby water sources and groundwater, making the water unsafe for people to drink. Workers who handle e-waste, children who search through dumps for items to sell, and people who live near these areas are all exposed to these dangerous substances.
One city heavily affected by e-waste is Guiyu, China, often called the world’s largest e-waste dump. Workers in Guiyu take apart more than 1.5 million pounds of old computers, phones, and other electronics each year.
Incinerator ash
Incinerator ash is the material left after incinerators burn waste to get rid of it. When waste is burned, it can create harmful effects, such as the release of dangerous metals into leachate, which is water that has passed through the ash. In North America, modern Waste to Energy (WTE) plants use controls to prevent pollution, and tests over many years at multiple plants have shown that leachate from WTE ash is not toxic.
An example of unfair waste trade is the Khian Sea waste disposal incident. A ship named the Khian Sea carried 14,000 tons of ash from an incinerator in Philadelphia to be disposed of. After being refused entry by several countries, including the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Haiti, the crew dumped some of the ash near Haiti. The ship changed its name twice to hide its identity, but many other countries, such as Senegal and Singapore, also banned it. Eventually, the ash was likely dumped into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This event led the Haitian government to stop all waste imports and highlighted the dangers of global waste trade. Because of incidents like this, the Basel Convention was created to stop the unfair movement of hazardous waste, which is called "toxic colonialism" by developing countries. The convention was signed in March 1989 and became active in May 1992. The United States has signed the treaty but has not yet officially approved it.
Chemical waste
Chemical waste is leftover material from dangerous chemicals that cannot be used anymore. It is usually made by large factories. Disposing of this waste is very hard and expensive. It can cause serious problems and health dangers if people are exposed to it. Special waste treatment centers must handle it carefully.
One example of chemical waste being sent from developed countries to developing countries happened when an Italian businessman tried to avoid rules in Europe. He reportedly sent 4,000 tons of toxic waste, including 150 tons of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), to Nigeria. This waste was worth $4.3 million to ship. An article in the Fordham Environmental Law Review explained how this waste harmed Nigeria and its people.
This case shows how waste from wealthy Western countries often harms poorer countries in the Global South unfairly.
Another risk to developing countries is the increasing problem of shipbreaking, which happens mostly in Asia. Developed countries looking to get rid of old ships find it cheaper to send them to Asia for dismantling. China and Bangladesh are major places where this happens. A big issue is that these old ships were built when environmental rules were not as strict. A report shows how this new type of waste trade affects workers and the environment. These old ships contain harmful materials like asbestos, lead oxide, zinc chromates, mercury, arsenic, and tributyltin. Also, workers in China and other developing countries often do not have proper tools or safety gear to protect themselves from these dangerous substances.
Plastic waste
The trade in plastic waste is the main reason for marine litter. Countries that import this waste often do not have the ability to handle all of it. Because of this, the United Nations has rules about trading waste plastic unless it follows specific guidelines.
Impact
The global waste trade has caused harm to many people, especially in poorer, developing countries. These nations often lack safe ways to recycle or handle waste, and workers may touch harmful waste with their hands. Toxic waste is frequently not disposed of or treated properly, polluting the environment and causing illness or death in people and animals. Many individuals have become sick or died because of unsafe handling of these dangerous materials.
The trade of hazardous waste harms the environment and natural ecosystems. Studies show that areas near waste dump sites have high levels of long-lasting harmful chemicals, which have killed birds, fish, and other wildlife. Dangerous metals are found in the air, water, soil, and sediment around these dump areas, and their levels are extremely high and harmful.
Hazardous waste trade also harms human health. People in developing countries may be more likely to suffer from health issues caused by these wastes. Toxic materials are often dumped in open landfills, burned in incinerators, or handled using unsafe methods. Workers often lack protective clothing and are exposed to harmful chemicals through direct contact, breathing, touching soil or dust, or consuming contaminated food and water. These wastes can cause serious health problems, including cancer, diabetes, brain damage, hormone imbalances, skin changes, kidney and liver damage, bone disease, lung problems, reproductive issues, and other life-threatening illnesses. Improper disposal of hazardous waste is a major public health risk.
On April 24, 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines warned Canada that if the country did not retrieve 64 tonnes of garbage mistakenly labeled as recyclable, he would take strong action. The waste was sent by a private company in 2016 that recycled plastic. Duterte is known for making strong statements and taking firm actions. During the ASEAN Summit in Manila, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada was asked about solving the issue. Trudeau promised to return the waste, but two years later, the situation remained unresolved. Duterte gave Canada until May 30 to act, or the Philippine Supreme Court would take the matter to an international court. This event became known as the Philippine-Canada waste conflict.
A month later, Malaysia became the second Asian country to take action against illegal waste shipments from Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States. Malaysia’s Environment Minister, Yeo Bee Yin, stated that Malaysia would not accept waste from developed nations, as it violates human rights.
China has also limited the import of waste from developed countries. Now, countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar have become new destinations for waste from developed nations, which is considered unfair.
International responses to global waste trade issues
Over the past thirty years, many countries and groups have tried to address the challenges of the global waste trade. Managing the movement of hazardous waste has been difficult because there is a lot of waste being moved, and laws are often hard to enforce. Some international agreements have gaps that allow countries and companies to illegally dump dangerous waste. One of the most important efforts to control this trade is the Basel Convention.
The Basel Convention is an international treaty that helps manage the movement of hazardous waste across borders. It was created in 1989 to stop developed countries from sending dangerous waste to less developed countries. This treaty was formed after several well-known cases where large amounts of toxic waste were dumped in poorer countries, harming people and the environment. The goal of the Basel Convention is to reduce the creation of hazardous waste and control its movement between countries.
The Basel Convention was signed by many countries on March 22, 1989, and officially started on May 5, 1992. As of May 2014, 180 countries and the European Union have joined the agreement. Haiti and the United States have signed the treaty but have not yet officially agreed to it.
ENFORCE is an international group made up of experts who work to help countries follow the Basel Convention. It was created to handle issues related to the movement of hazardous waste between countries. Because this issue affects many nations, it is important to have a group that includes representatives from different parts of the world. ENFORCE includes one representative from each of the five United Nations regions that are part of the Basel Convention, as well as five representatives from regional centers. Other groups, such as the United Nations Environmental Programme and the Basel Action Network, can also join ENFORCE.
In 1999, the Basel Convention added the Protocol on Liability and Compensation to improve rules and protect people from harm caused by hazardous waste. This protocol aims to assign responsibility when hazardous waste causes damage to health or the environment. It requires countries and companies to take responsibility if they are in control of the waste during its movement. However, many countries have not signed this protocol, so its use is limited.
To protect themselves from unfair waste dumping, African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries signed the Lome IV Convention. This agreement is part of the Basel Convention and stops the European Union from sending hazardous waste to these countries. After the Lome IV Convention ended in 2000, a new agreement called the Cotonou Agreement was created. This agreement recognizes that developing countries face greater risks from hazardous waste and aims to prevent harmful waste shipments to these nations.
In 1991, several African countries met to discuss their concerns about the Basel Convention not stopping the dumping of hazardous waste in their countries. They created the Bamako Convention, which bans the import of all hazardous waste from outside the Organization of African Unity for disposal or recycling. This agreement is stricter than the Basel Convention because it considers any waste from a non-member country as illegal. However, these countries struggled to enforce the rules due to limited resources and weak enforcement. As a result, the Bamako Convention had little impact.
Laura Pratt, an expert on hazardous waste, says that even though many local and international efforts have been made to control the waste trade, current agreements have not fully stopped the illegal movement of toxic waste. She explains that there are still weaknesses in the system that allow waste to be dumped illegally. Some problems include unclear definitions of terms and the use of false permits, bribes, or fake labels to move waste. Companies often send hazardous waste to poorer countries through illegal methods. International agencies have raised concerns about this, but efforts to stop it are limited by the lack of monitoring tools and weak enforcement in many countries. Without strong international cooperation, it is hard to control the illegal trade of hazardous waste, and developing countries often suffer the most.
Another challenge with the Basel Convention and other agreements is the difficulty in defining what is considered waste. Vague definitions lead to confusion because different countries interpret the rules differently. For example, the lack of clear differences between "waste" and "products" in the Basel Convention has allowed hazardous waste to be sent under the names of goods or raw materials, even though these materials still harm the environment and health in developing countries.