Dr.
Katharina Kummer Peiry03 November
The recent shift in attitudes by a number of developed countries signalled at the Basel Convention's 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Colombia has signalled "a true paradigm shift" in the status of recycling, according to the UN-EP Basel Convention's executive secretary, Dr Katharina Kummer Peiry.
Speaking at the International Environment Council's conference, Recycling benefits from Basel "miracle" - held at this year's Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention in Munich - the secretary hailed the progress made at the Basel Convention COP as "the miracle of Cartagena" because of its "spectacular success" on a number of fronts.
The message from Colombia was that waste should be minimised and treated "as a valuable resource and not as a costly burden," said Kummer Peiry.
The acknowledgement that recycling can be highly beneficial if conducted in a socially and environmentally sound manner meant that the Basel Convention was no longer focused solely on controlling and inhibiting waste transactions. This represented "a significant change in attitude by governments," claimed the speaker.
Having described e-waste as the stream "most discussed by far" at Basel Convention level, Dr Kummer Peiry said that the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE), launched at the 9th COP, had become "a key platform" for work on the management of used equipment of this nature, with involvement from governments, industry associations and companies.
The ultimate aim, she said, was to devise practical guidelines taking industry input and expertise into account.
Kummer Peiry went on to explain that the agreement on how many and which countries are needed to ratify the ban amendment on export of hazardous waste to developing countries for it to take effect was another part of the success of the COP in Colombia.
Seventeen countries that were present at the 1995 COP and that have not yet ratified the ban would need to do so for it to become part of the Basel Convention. It was speculated at the convention that this could take as little as three years.
Meanwhile, Olivier François, chairman of the International Environment Council (IEC), and Robin Wiener, President of the U.S. Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), asked about the certification of recycling companies to demonstrate they are environmentally soundly managed, and pointed to a number of existing certification systems.
In reply Kummer Peiry explained that certification of recycling companies was part of the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) approach, and assured both parties that existing certification systems would need to be recognised in that work.
In other developments, former IEC chairman Dr Alvaro Rodriguez de Sanabria, radioactivity expert for Spain's recovery and recycling federation FER, outlined work towards an International Atomic Energy Agency "Code of Conduct for Scrap and Semis Trading".
Nuclear warning
According to Rodriguez de Sanabria, his would be a non-binding document aimed at protecting people, property and the environment against ionising radiation arising from radioactive material that may inadvertently be present in scrap and semis.
It would also involve harmonising the approach of states to the discovery and safe handling of such material, especially as scrap moves across borders.
It was "nonsense", he argued, to apply the "finder pays" principle in situations where metals recyclers uncover a radioactive orphan source in an incoming scrap consignment. It was not the fault of a recycler if control of such a source had been lost further up the chain, he said.
The speaker went on to claim that the BIR had demonstrated its willingness to co-operate fully in arriving at the best possible solution to such incidents.
In addition, the BIR has distributed educational posters in over 10 languages giving advice on the visual identification and detection of unwanted radioactive material to companies around the world.
Read More
Opposition to Basel Ban on Toxic Waste Exports Collapses
An amendment to the Basel Convention banning the export of hazardous wastes, including electronics and old obsolete ships from developed to developing countries is to be brought into law within two to three years 178 countries.
Success for Radioactive Cold War Waste Program
The DOE program to clean up the country's Cold War legacy at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has taken delivery of its 10,000th shipment of transuranic waste.
Intelligent Recycling Required Amid Volatile Commodity Prices
While many commodity prices have fallen recent months, but remain at very high levels in certain instances leading to a need for investment in intelligent recycling, according to Professor Philippe Chalmin.
The recent shift in attitudes by a number of developed countries signalled at the Basel Convention's 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Colombia has signalled "a true paradigm shift" in the status of recycling, according to the UN-EP Basel Convention's executive secretary, Dr Katharina Kummer Peiry.
Speaking at the International Environment Council's conference, Recycling benefits from Basel "miracle" - held at this year's Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention in Munich - the secretary hailed the progress made at the Basel Convention COP as "the miracle of Cartagena" because of its "spectacular success" on a number of fronts.
The message from Colombia was that waste should be minimised and treated "as a valuable resource and not as a costly burden," said Kummer Peiry.
The acknowledgement that recycling can be highly beneficial if conducted in a socially and environmentally sound manner meant that the Basel Convention was no longer focused solely on controlling and inhibiting waste transactions. This represented "a significant change in attitude by governments," claimed the speaker.
Having described e-waste as the stream "most discussed by far" at Basel Convention level, Dr Kummer Peiry said that the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE), launched at the 9th COP, had become "a key platform" for work on the management of used equipment of this nature, with involvement from governments, industry associations and companies.
The ultimate aim, she said, was to devise practical guidelines taking industry input and expertise into account.
Kummer Peiry went on to explain that the agreement on how many and which countries are needed to ratify the ban amendment on export of hazardous waste to developing countries for it to take effect was another part of the success of the COP in Colombia.
Seventeen countries that were present at the 1995 COP and that have not yet ratified the ban would need to do so for it to become part of the Basel Convention. It was speculated at the convention that this could take as little as three years.
Meanwhile, Olivier François, chairman of the International Environment Council (IEC), and Robin Wiener, President of the U.S. Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), asked about the certification of recycling companies to demonstrate they are environmentally soundly managed, and pointed to a number of existing certification systems.
In reply Kummer Peiry explained that certification of recycling companies was part of the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) approach, and assured both parties that existing certification systems would need to be recognised in that work.
In other developments, former IEC chairman Dr Alvaro Rodriguez de Sanabria, radioactivity expert for Spain's recovery and recycling federation FER, outlined work towards an International Atomic Energy Agency "Code of Conduct for Scrap and Semis Trading".
Nuclear warning
According to Rodriguez de Sanabria, his would be a non-binding document aimed at protecting people, property and the environment against ionising radiation arising from radioactive material that may inadvertently be present in scrap and semis.
It would also involve harmonising the approach of states to the discovery and safe handling of such material, especially as scrap moves across borders.
It was "nonsense", he argued, to apply the "finder pays" principle in situations where metals recyclers uncover a radioactive orphan source in an incoming scrap consignment. It was not the fault of a recycler if control of such a source had been lost further up the chain, he said.
The speaker went on to claim that the BIR had demonstrated its willingness to co-operate fully in arriving at the best possible solution to such incidents.
In addition, the BIR has distributed educational posters in over 10 languages giving advice on the visual identification and detection of unwanted radioactive material to companies around the world.
Read More
Opposition to Basel Ban on Toxic Waste Exports Collapses
An amendment to the Basel Convention banning the export of hazardous wastes, including electronics and old obsolete ships from developed to developing countries is to be brought into law within two to three years 178 countries.
Success for Radioactive Cold War Waste Program
The DOE program to clean up the country's Cold War legacy at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has taken delivery of its 10,000th shipment of transuranic waste.
Intelligent Recycling Required Amid Volatile Commodity Prices
While many commodity prices have fallen recent months, but remain at very high levels in certain instances leading to a need for investment in intelligent recycling, according to Professor Philippe Chalmin.
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