Why in news

• Tonnes of garbage sent to the Philippines years ago was shipped back to Canada after a festering diplomatic row.

Details:

• Asian nations are increasingly objecting to being treated as dumping grounds for international trash.
• The 69 shipping containers of garbage were loaded onto a cargo vessel at Subic Bay to begin the lengthy trip to Canada.

Malaysia to return non-recyclable plastic waste

• The Malaysian Government has announced it will return around 3,000t of smuggled non-recyclable plastic waste to their countries of origin, including the UK, US, Australia and Canada. The offending countries were urged to review their management of plastic waste and to stop shipping waste out to developing countries.

Waste dumping proposal defeated

• A proposal by India to prevent developed countries from dumping their electronic and plastic waste onto developing countries, was defeated at the recently concluded meeting of the Basel Convention in Geneva.
• “India and Nigeria were the only countries that had strongly opposed the guidelines, pushed by the European Union, to dilute safeguards against the trans-boundary movement of e-waste,”

The Basel Convention

• Formally called: The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. It is an international treaty
• Aims to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries