incommunicado

BAN. „Wireless Waste: Basel Convention’s Next Hazardous Waste Challenge.“ Basel Action Network (Oct 2004). „Over 1 billion mobile phones are currently in use worldwide. In North America, particularly in the United States, the number of people using mobile phones has jumped from a mere 340,000 subscribers in 1985 to over 128 in 2001. Coupled with a relatively high discard rate and the intrinsic hazardousness of various mobile phone parts, the threat of waste mobile phones inundating the global waste stream is increasingly real. Wastes mobile phones poses a greater threat to developing countries, where these toxic wastes have been migrating in huge quantities over the past years. Lack of collection infrastructure, financial and technical capacities are just some of the fundamental challenges these countries face in confronting these wastes. But, the greater problem lies in the unjust transfer of toxins to these countries who are the least capable of addressing the problem. The Basel Convention provides a ready solution to the onslaught of end-of-life phone crisis. The call for environmentally sound management, minimization of transboundary movement, prevention of the waste’s generation, generator responsibility for the wastes, are just some of the crucial benefits and protection the Convention offers. Certain sectors, however, are raising the question of whether end-of-life mobile phones can be considered wastes or even be determined hazardous wastes under the Convention, particularly if these end-of-life mobile phones will be “reused for their original purpose”, “reconditioned”, etc. This paper touches on the specific provisions of the Convention that considers end-of-life mobile phones as wastes, and also, most importantly, their treatment as hazardous wastes. This paper further provides an examination of the relevant Basel provisions that highlight its spirit and intent that includes all forms of “refurbishment”, “reconditioning” operations within its “disposal” definitions. The terms “major” and “minor” repair will play a pivotal role in the solving the end-of-life mobile phones crisis, and BAN discusses a logical, legally defensible, and Basel consistent approach in the treatment of these terms. Lastly, we examine the folly of removing end-of-life mobile phones from the coverage of the Basel Convention, and highlight the fact that rather than trying to remove mobile phones from the globally established hazardous waste control regime, it is more prudent for our partnerships in Basel to work by all means to remove the hazards from the mobile phone itself.“