NEPA Advances Efforts to Align Country’s Waste Export Practices with Basel Convention

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) is advancing efforts to align Jamaica’s waste export practices with recent global amendments, under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

The amendments, which include plastic waste (effective 2021) and electronic and electrical waste (e-waste, effective January 1, 2025), aim to ensure hazardous and potentially hazardous waste is traded responsibly and managed in an environmentally sound manner.

Speaking at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’, on June 11, Manager of the Pollution Prevention Branch at NEPA, Bethune Morgan, explained that “the objective of the Convention is to provide a mechanism by which hazardous waste can be moved from one territory to the next in a manner that allows for its environmentally sound management, taking into consideration protection of health and the environment”.

She noted, further, that stories of countries offloading hazardous waste to ill-equipped nations, including one infamous case involving waste dumped on a Haitian beach, were part of the historical motivation for the Convention’s establishment.

“Stories such as this are what encouraged parties to come together and decide that there needed to be a mechanism in place to move hazardous waste that could not be managed in a particular location, track it to ensure that it is going to a facility that was equipped to manage it, as well as ensure that there would be less impact to the health of persons handling and managing this waste stream,” she explained.

Sharing details on the scope of the Convention, Ms. Bethune informed JIS News that in addition to “primarily governing the movement of hazardous waste, it also governs the movement of what is called Other Waste”, noting that “while this particular waste might not be hazardous, it requires special consideration and includes wastes such as household waste”.

As it relates to the implications that these changes will have for Jamaica, mention was made of the fact that under the amended rules, all transboundary movement of plastic waste, considered to be hazardous or those requiring special consideration, must now comply with the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure, which requires importing countries to provide formal consent before waste is shipped.

Plastic waste that is subject to the PIC procedure includes those that are classified as hazardous waste containing contaminated constituents, such as the batteries used in motor vehicles, those in cell phones as well as televisions that have cathode ray tubes (CRTs).

“With our current modern-day electronics also having components which are hazardous, the recent amendments also require that those electrical and electronic waste, once it could be proved not to be fit for use, should be treated as waste primarily due to indiscriminate disposal that has been observed of equipment that was said and declared to be equipment for second-hand use, but were in such poor condition that they were essentially waste not fit for use nor for repair,” Ms. Morgan pointed out.

She added that before these waste products can be moved under the amended Basel rules, “it requires that the country to which the export is to be done, must first give permission to the importing state before a permit can be issued by NEPA to our local businessmen and stakeholders for exporting that waste”.

To obtain said permit, persons must submit an application and notification form, which indicates the volume and type of waste that the exporter would like to send to another territory. The form will be sent to the other competent authorities in the country that will receive the waste as well as any other country through which the waste will pass.

The amended Convention also outlines that plastics that are not categorised as hazardous would not be subject to the PIC procedure.

“Examples of plastics that are considered to be nonhazardous would be bottles that we use to drink water or juice, once they are not tainted,” the Manager said.

In preparation to advancing efforts to align Jamaica’s waste export practices with the recent global amendments, NEPA has been actively sensitising key stakeholders, including the Jamaica Customs Agency, leading to interventions that prevented non-compliant e-waste shipments from leaving the country.

The agency is also working to amend local legislation, particularly the Natural Resources (Hazardous Waste) (Control of Transboundary Movement) Regulations of 2002, to reflect the updated Basel Convention requirements.

“With these changes, we want to ensure that Jamaica is responsive to what is a legally binding instrument globally and that we are compliant as a nation, for the safety of our own public health and environment,” Ms. Morgan said.

NEPA advises all exporters of waste materials, especially plastic and e-waste, to consult with the Agency before initiating exports as failure to follow the PIC procedure could result in international violations and potential reputational damage for the country.

For more information, persons may contact NEPA’s Pollution Prevention Branch by sending an email to competentauthority@nepa.gov.jm or call 876-754-7540.