Plastic Waste and the Basel Convention

In 2019, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, at its 14th meeting, and the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), at its fourth session, noted with concern that the high and rapidly increasing levels of marine litter, including plastic litter and microplastics, represent a serious environmental problem on a global scale, negatively affecting marine biodiversity, ecosystems, animal well-being, societies, livelihoods, fisheries, marine transport, recreation, tourism and economies. 

The COP to the Basel Convention also emphasised that work under the Basel Convention can and will play an important role in addressing the high and rapidly increasing levels of marine plastic litter and microplastics by preventing plastic waste from entering the marine environment. In a landmark decision, the COP adopted amendments to Annexes II, VIII and IX (the Plastic Waste Amendments), making the Basel Convention the only global legally binding instrument that currently specifically addresses plastic waste.

Currently, there is no consolidated ‘one-stop-shop’ that Basel Convention Focal Points, Competent Authorities and other stakeholders can rely on to gain a comprehensive understanding of the steps needed and the tools and guidance available to ensure prevention and minimization, environmentally sound management and control of transboundary movement of plastic waste. This course aims to fill this gap. 

The course explains the key provisions of the Basel Convention, thereby focusing on plastic waste across its three pillars: 

• prevention and minimization of the generation of plastic waste; 
• environmentally sound management of plastic waste; 
• and control of transboundary movements of plastic waste.