Contents

International conventions and cooperation: Waste

Journal:
Manual of European Environmental Policy
ISSN:
1467-0445
E-ISSN:
1740-3529
Publisher:
Routledge,
DOI:
10.3763/meep.2010.0100
Author:
Institute for European Environmental Policy
Information last updated:
December 2011
Publication date:
December 2011

The main international cooperation measures in the waste arena concentrate, logically, on transboundary shipments of waste – in particular hazardous waste – for treatment or disposal (see the Waste Shipment Regulation). The mid to late 1980s saw a tightening of environmental regulations in industrialized countries, which led to a dramatic rise in the cost of hazardous waste disposal. Unscrupulous ‘toxic traders’ began to search for cheaper ways to get rid of wastes by shipping them to developing countries and to Eastern Europe where costs (and often environmental standards) were lower. The discovery of such damaging activity led to international outrage and the drafting and adoption of international Conventions and agreements to provide a framework to ensure that shipments of waste, in particular hazardous waste, are undertaken safely and with the minimum possible environmental and health impacts.

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