International trade in hazardous waste

Preface ix Acknowledgements xi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The fate of hazardous wastes 2 1.2 Background to the waste trade problem 2 1.3 A prognosis: Can the waste trade be controlled? 4 1.4 Coming to terms with the international trade in hazardous waste 5 2 Legislative-regulatory controls affecting waste management schemes 7 2.1 Environmental laws in North America 8 2.2 The general character of hazardous waste legislation in Europe 11 2.2.1 Environmental laws within the European Union 12 2.2.2 Environmental laws and controls for the former Soviet bloc countries of Eastern and Central Europe 16 2.3 Environmental policies and regulations in Asia, the Pacific regions and other parts of the world 16 2.4 New trends and contemporary issues in the legislative-regulatory control systems 17 2.5 A paradigm of international environmental law 18 3 Global dimensions of waste disposal practices 20 3.1 Waste management practised in industrialized nations 21 3.1.1 Sources of wastes and hazardous waste streams in developed countries 22 vi Contents 3.1.2 Waste management strategies within the OECD countries 25 3.1.3 Issues affecting monitoring, control and waste disposal programmes 26 3.1.4 A synopsis of waste management methods and technologies 27 3.1.5 Where do we go from here? 38 3.2 Waste management practices in developing nations and countries with economies in transition 39 3.2.1 Sources of wastes and hazardous waste streams in developing countries 41 3.2.2 How are internally generated wastes managed? 47 3.2.3 Critical environmental issues in developing countries 48 3.2.4 The need for environmental laws and policies 53 3.2.5 General environmental control needs for developing countries 54 3.3 Waste facility siting problems and resolutions 60 3.4 Prescriptions for general waste management and related environmental management programmes 63 4 The transboundary shipments of hazardous wastes 69 4.1 Stimuli for the transfrontier movements of wastes 70 4.2 The ‘waste tourism’: Where are the wastes travelling? 72 4.2.1 Past happenings: The fine line between illegal dumping and legally negotiated business transactions 74 4.2.2 Multilateral waste trade arrangements 80 4.2.3 Waste exchange programmes 81 4.3 Public outcry, indecisions and uncertainties about the future 82 4.3.1 Is a de facto double standard sustainable? 84 4.4 The fallacies and realities of the international waste trade 85 5 Controlling the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes 88 5.1 OECD and EU initiatives concerning the transfrontier movements of hazardous wastes 89 5.1.1 The OECD Core List of hazardous wastes 91 5.1.2 Development of an OECD system for the monitoring and control of transfrontier shipments of hazardous wastes 93 5.1.3 OECD legal requirements and actions concerning the export of hazardous wastes from the OECD area 94 Contents vii 5.2 Bilateral agreements on the transboundary movements of hazardous materials in North America 96 5.3 Initiatives by the UN to control the international trade in hazardous wastes 97 5.3.1 The Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal 98 5.4 Control measures by developing countries 103 5.5 Recent developments and actions by the international community 105 5.5.1 OECD and EU developments, initiatives and actions 108 5.5.2 Total ban on all exports of hazardous wastes from OECD countries to non-OECD countries: Is this for real or just a mirage? 109 5.6 The search for a global solution: Can the international trade in hazardous wastes be controlled? 110 6 Ramifications of a hazardous waste trade 112 6.1 The nature of hazardous wastes and waste classification 113 6.2 Hazardous waste management risk issues 116 6.2.1 Risks due to ‘status quo’ waste management practices 116 6.2.2 Transportation risk issues 117 6.2.3 An ‘acceptable’ risk concept 118 6.3 Health and environmental implications of waste trade programmes 120 6.4 Socio-economic indicators of waste trade impacts 124 6.5 Compensations from a hazardous waste trade 128 7 A conceptual formulation for waste trade evaluations 132 7.1 A framework for trade-offs analysis 132 7.2 Towards an informed decision-making 134 7.3 Logistical inputs to the decision-making process 137 8 Assessing the viability of a waste trade programme 139 8.1 A protocol for evaluating the viability of a waste trade programme 139 8.2 Justification for a waste trade programme 142 8.3 The case against waste trade activities 143 8.4 Should the toxic waste trade be supported? 145 8.5 Recommended guidelines for planning a waste trade activity 147 viii Contents 9 Towards a global environmental policy-making 150 9.1 Forging global environmental agreement between ‘unequal’ partners 150 9.2 An agenda for global environmental protection 151 9.2.1 Multilateral cooperation on global environmental protection 153 9.3 Harmonizing global environmental policies 154 9.3.1 Pollution abatement strategies and policies 155 9.3.2 Global environmental management standards 156 9.4 Political and diplomatic issues in hazardous waste policy decision-making 157 10 An epilogue 159 10.1 Concluding remarks 160 References 164 Further reading 171 Recommended journals 184 Index 187