PROCEEDING. Workshop on National Reporting and Inventory of the Basel Convention for Asia

Transcription

1 PROCEEDING Workshop on National Reporting and Inventory of the Basel Convention for Asia Banten, Indonesia, April 2012

2 Table of contents 1. Introduction Overview on the Basel Convention Regional Centre for South-East Asia (BCRC-SEA) Day 1, morning: opening session and introduction Opening address by Mr. Aboejoewono Aboeprajitno, Director of the BCRC-SEA Opening address by Ms. Carla Valle-Klann, Programme Officer of the SBC Presentation of the objectives of the workshop Guidelines on improving national reporting of Parties to the Convention The experience of Malaysia Day 1, afternoon: waste definition and classification Day 2, morning: national inventory SBC guidelines and BCRC activities The experience of the Philippines Day 2, afternoon: national reporting The experience of Japan National reporting from the point of view of the SBC The experience of Singapore Day 3: conclusions and recommendations Evaluation Appendixes List of participants Agenda Evaluation form

3 1. Introduction The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global environmental agreement on hazardous and other wastes. As of March 2012, the Convention has 179 Parties and aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes. The Basel Convention came into force in In Asia there are 40 Parties to the Convention. In the South-East Asia region 9 countries are Parties. Myanmar is the only non Party. The Convention is based on the following guiding principles: Hazardous waste generation should be minimized at the source, either by prevention of the generation of hazardous waste or by the reduction of its hazardousness; Hazardous waste should be treated and disposed of as close as possible to their source of generation; Transboundary movement of hazardous wastes should be reduced to a minimum, and; Hazardous wastes should be managed in an environmentally sound manner. Transboundary movement of hazardous waste and other waste between Parties and non-parties is prohibited. However, Article 11 of the Basel Convention indicates that Parties may enter into bilateral, multilateral or regional agreements or arrangements regarding the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes or other wastes with Parties and non-parties provided that such agreements or arrangements do not derogate from the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes or other wastes required by the Convention. This document describes the activities that took place during the Workshop on National Reporting and Inventory of the Basel Convention for Asia. The event took place in the Hotel Aryaduta Lippo Village, 401 Boulevard Jend. Sudirman Lippo Village 1300 Tangerang 15811, Banten, Indonesia, from 24 to 26 April, It was organized by the Basel Convention Regional Centre for South-East Asia (BCRC-SEA) and the Secretariat of the Basel Convention (SBC), with financial support from the European Commission, the government of Norway and the ministry of environment of Japan. The Secretariat and the BCRC-SEA expressed their sincere gratitude to the European Commission and the Governments of Norway and Japan, for their financial support, which make the realization of the workshop possible, and a success. 2. Overview on the Basel Convention Regional Centre for South-East Asia (BCRC-SEA) The BCRC-SEA is based in Jakarta, Indonesia and is one of the 14 BCRCs established under the Basel Convention. It was designated as a BCRC in 1997, but it was only after the signing of a framework contract with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention at the end of 2005 that it could engage full time staff and deploy more activities. The BCRC-SEA serves 10 countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. 3

4 Its core function is to facilitate the implementation of the Basel Convention by the Parties in the region by capacity building through: - Providing training; - Promoting technology transfer; - Providing information; - Providing consulting services; - Facilitating awareness raising activities. The Centre has done a large number of projects and organized workshops and training activities in the region. Examples of these activities are included in the next tables. Workshops and training Regional Training Workshop on the Inventory of Hazardous Waste Generation Regional Workshop Aimed at Promoting the Basel Protocol Regional Workshop for Environmentally Sound Management of Asbestos Containing Material National Training Workshop on Hazardous Waste Management for Manufacturing Industries National Training for Customs E-Waste Training Workshop for Asia and the Pacific Regional Technical Training Workshop on Environmentally Sound Collection, Separation and Management of E-waste Workshop 2010 of the Asian Network for Prevention of Illegal Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes Regional Training Workshop on Repair, Refurbishment, Reconditioning of Used EEE and Recycling and Final Disposal of E- wastes Projects National inventories of Hazardous Waste Demonstration Project in the Philippines Development of Technical Guidelines on E-waste Inventory and 3 R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle of End-of-Life E-products Project on the Environmentally Sound Management of Asbestos Wastes in Tsunami-Affected Countries in South and South East Asia. Development of Regional database on E-Waste Venue / date Jakarta, Indonesia, June 2005 Yogyakarta, Indonesia, May 2006 Jakarta, Indonesia, 19 December 2006 Jakarta, Indonesia, 4 6 December 2007 and May 2008 Jakarta, Indonesia, July 2008 Hanoi, Vietnam, August 2009 Jakarta, Indonesia, July 2010 Siem Reap, Cambodia, 30 November 2 December 2010 Bangkok, Thailand, April 2011 Period 2005 August 2006 March 2007 December 2009 February ongoing Several of these activities are related to inventories of Hazardous Waste. In particular it initiated a pilot project for a national inventory of hazardous waste in the Philippines in 2005 and organized, in the same year, a workshop on the topic for all countries in the region. 4

5 Information on other projects and activities can be found on the BCRC-SEA s website: 3. Day 1, morning: opening session and introduction The opening session and introduction of the workshop consisted of the following elements: An welcome and opening address by the BCRC-SEA; An opening address by the SBC; A presentation of participants and a presentation of the region and of the objectives of the workshop; A presentation of the guidance document on improving national reporting by Parties to the Convention; and A presentation by the representative of Malaysia on their experience with national reporting and inventories. 3.1 Opening address by Mr. Aboejoewono Aboeprajitno, Director of the BCRC-SEA After a welcome word by Ms. Cynthia Indriani, Executive Secretary of the BCRC-SEA Mr. Aboeprajitno expressed his gratitude to the participants of 17 countries for being present in the Banten province and the donors for allowing the organization of the workshop. He indicated that, thanks to the generous contribution of the donors, participation had also been open for Asian countries outside the sub-region directly served by the Centre, especially Asian countries with particular needs regarding reporting and inventories. This highlights the importance of national reporting and national inventories for the implementation of the Basel Convention and the monitoring of progress. Mr. Aboeprajitno (BCRC-SEA) and Ms. Valle-Klann (SBC) during the opening session 5

6 He explained the relevance of the workshop as there are many challenges on reporting and inventories in the region. He invited participants to be active during the event and to raise the issues of concern to allow for concrete results from the workshop. 3.2 Opening address by Ms. Carla Valle-Klann, Programme Officer of the SBC Ms. Valle-Klann congratulated the BCRC-SEA, on behalf of the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the excellent organization of the workshop. She also thanked the European Commission and the governments of Norway and Japan for the generous financial contribution that made it possible to organize the event. She had a specific word of appreciation for the participants from Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore for their willingness to present their experiences during the workshop. She emphasized that national reporting is a very important subject and that is was therefore important that not only countries that are directly supported by the BCRC-SEA could participate, but also a number of other countries facing difficulties in this area. She stressed that this is an important opportunity for the participants to learn also from each other s experiences. And since it is not possible for the SBC or the BCRCs to provide such workshops very often, she emphasized that it would be of utmost importance that the participants present in this workshop would take the information and knowledge obtained in the workshop back to their home countries and would serve as trainers to their colleagues. 3.3 Presentation of the objectives of the workshop The participants were invited to present themselves and indicate their main responsibilities regarding hazardous waste in their respective countries. After a short introduction on the region, the work of the BCRC-SEA and the Basel Convention Mr. Aboeprajitno gave an overview of the status of national reporting under the Basel Convention as of Country Number of reports Last report received Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Darussalam Cambodia Japan Lao PDR N.A. N.A. Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal

7 Oman Philippines Singapore Thailand United Arab Emirates Viet Nam Source: SBC Notes: The number of reports received does not necessarily indicate comparative compliance due to different dates of accession, ratification, etc. among the countries. The numbers above include reports regarding years 1999 to 2010, i.e. the maximum number of reports is 12. This overview shows that a number of countries have reported very frequently but that others experience difficulties in reporting timely and on a yearly basis. He continued by indicating that the workshop had the following objectives: To assist the participating countries in meeting their reporting obligations under the Basel Convention; To provide guidance on the methods of developing national inventories; and To establish networking opportunities and information exchange within countries in the Asian region as well as with relevant international bodies and other stakeholders. He finished by indicating that there are a number of challenges the region is facing in meeting their reporting obligations and in conducting national inventories, in particular: The complexity of the Basel Convention and its provisions; Lack of strategies to deal with hazardous waste; Lack of coordination and fragmentation of roles; Lack of resources and knowledge in conducting inventories; Waste types to be reported; Export policy; and Harmonization with the World Customs Organization Codes. He indicated that it was decided that the workshop would try to address a number of these issues and would concentrate on three subjects: Waste definitions and classifications; National inventories; and National reporting. 3.4 Guidelines on improving national reporting of Parties to the Convention Ms. Valle-Klann started with an overview of the number of reports the SBC has received from Parties over the years. 7

8 Number of Parties Reporting Parties While the number of Parties has increased over the years, the number of reports Parties sent to the SBC has decreased. Moreover, even though the deadline for submission of the 2010 report has expired at the end of 2011 the SBC has received until now only 42 reports. She explained that there have been some technical problems with receiving reports, but that the trend is not good. This may have several reasons. Among them are the: Lack of incentives for Parties to report; Lack of financial mechanism for implementation of the Basel Convention; Lack of political support; and Lack of capacity. She stressed that providing information to the SBC is not only an obligation, but has also benefits for the Parties. It is information that the Parties can use if they have questions regarding other Parties, for e.g.: What is the focal point or the competent authority in a particular country? What type of legislation does the country have? How much hazardous waste is generated in the world, or in my region? How much e-waste is generated in Asia? In particular on the quantitative data (i.e. quantity of generatation, import and export of hazardous wastes and other wastes) the SBC can hardly provide precise answers to those who request such information, because of lack of reporting. Ms. Valle-Klann continued by explaining that the Implementation and Compliance Committee (ICC) of the Basel Convention had produced guidance for Parties on national reporting and information gathering strategies under a mandate given in Decision VIII/32. This document provides guidance and flow sheets Parties can use to improve their system of national reporting. It also provides forms and other background material Parties may use in that context. The guidance can be found on the website of the SBC under: countries/national reporting/guidelines and is available in the six UN official languages. 8

9 The ICC also produced more recently a benchmark report that provides model answers to the different questions in the questionnaire Parties have to fill under the national reporting. This benchmark report can be found on the same place on the website of the SBC. She concluded that in an ideal world all Parties would provide complete, correct and timely reports containing detailed and relevant information. She indicated that the ideal situation would probably never become reality, but that one should do an effort to work into that direction. Finally she asked participants about the main issues regarding national reporting in their countries. The issues that were raised included: Legislation still needed to be developed or was in place but needed updating; Need for continuous training of staff and enforcement agencies; Weak technical capacity and rotating staff and hence the need to institutionalize knowledge; Prioritization of waste streams when preparing inventory, policy and strategy; Cooperation with customs: training, joint inspections, Green Customs Initiative. Ms. Valle-Klann indicated that if any Party or a group of Parties would be interested in requesting other training programmes or projects, the following steps could be taken: 1. Develop a project idea; 2. Write a program note, ideally via the BCRC; 3. Submit the note to the SBC; 4. SBC will try to find donors to support the proposal. However, it should be taken into account that the SBC has limited resources and that one should also look in the region for solutions. And perhaps, countries within the region may be in a position to help each other. The BCRC-SEA indicated that they would consider requests from countries outside the immediate core region in the spirit of cooperation, as long as the requests would be within the mandate of work of the Centre. 3.5 The experience of Malaysia Ms. Fenny Wong Nyuk Yin, principal assistant director of the hazardous substances division of the Department of Environment of Malaysia gave a presentation on the legislation and the system of control of hazardous waste in Malaysia. 9

10 Ms. Fenny Wong Nyuk Yin (DOE Malaysia) The different pieces of legislation in Malaysia cover provisions for hazardous waste for: Landsite treatment; Facilities that receive hazardous waste from other facilities; Secured landfills; Transportation of hazardous waste. In the legislation on transportation of hazardous waste, provisions are included for the mandatory use of an on-line tracking system of waste transports inside the country that should guarantee that the waste reaches the intended disposal site. She indicated that there is currently one national facility for integrated management of hazardous waste in Malaysia. This facility can treat hazardous waste via physical-chemical treatment, incineration and secured landfilling. All hazardous waste generated in Malaysia that is destined for final disposal has to be handed over to this facility. There are also facilities for recovery of hazardous waste, in particular for the recovery of lead-acid batteries. The tracking system applies to licensed companies that generate hazardous waste in relatively large quantities. The data regarding generation of hazardous wastes from those companies are obtained via the tracking system. Getting information on the non-licensed companies generating small amounts of hazardous waste (approximately companies) is a big challenge. She presented an overview of the data on generation and transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, based on the information from the tracking system and the information obtained from the notification procedures. She also indicated that there have been some recent cases of illegal traffic that were detected, in particular regarding e-waste. Finally she presented some experiences with a pilot project for the collection of e-waste. Ms. Wong also indicated that Malaysia has considerable problems linking the data from their national waste classification to the reporting format in Basel that requires the attribution of Y-codes. Also the linking with the list A of the Convention is problematic. 10

11 4. Day 1, afternoon: waste definition and classification During the afternoon session of day 1 Mr. Kees Wielenga, senior consultant of FFact Management Consultants, the Netherlands, gave a presentation on waste definition and waste classification. Mr. Kees Wielenga (FFact Management Consultants) Without a definition of waste and a classification system to describe the different types of waste that occur it is not possible to define effective policies to address the environmental challenges of waste management. The definition and classification are also essential as basic tools for the reporting and inventories. Mr. Wielenga explained that the Basel Convention contains a definition of waste. National definitions as included in waste legislation in Asian countries may differ from the definition of Basel. He presented a number of examples from legislation of countries that participated in the workshop. Having national definitions of waste that differ from the definition in the Basel Convention is not contrary to the Convention. However, it may lead to situations where materials that are waste under the national definition in one country may not be waste under the definition in other countries. This may also result in disputes between countries when such materials are subject to transboundary movements. However, as per Article 6(5) of the Basel Convention, if the material is waste in at least one of the countries involved, the rules of the Basel convention should be applied. He also indicated that in certain cases it may be difficult to assess if the material is waste or not. A number of Parties have indicated that this is particularly the case for e-waste. Some materials are shipped by economic operators as second-hand goods, but are of such poor quality that they are rather to be regarded as waste. However, it may be difficult for authorities to determine the status of such materials when a particular shipment is entering the country. Currently guidance on this particular issue is under development within the Basel Convention. A draft guidance document was presented to the COP10. It was decided to continue the development of the guidelines. It is foreseen that a next draft will become available in May 2012 for consultation. This will be posted on the SBC website and can be found under in the section development of technical guidelines on e-waste. 11

12 He continued by highlighting that the definition of hazardous waste in Article 1.1.a of the Convention makes reference to Annex I and Annex III of the Convention. Annex I contains 45 waste streams that are hazardous waste unless they do not possess any of the hazard characteristics included in Annex III. Most hazardous wastes are covered by this definition. However, some wastes that may exhibit hazard characteristics are not covered, including waste containing certain Vanadium compounds or waste containing certain forms of Aluminum. To facilitate the use of the hazard characteristics, technical guidelines have been prepared or are under preparation by the SBC. Apart from the definition in Article 1.1.a, which is common for all Parties to the Convention, Article 1.1.b. specifies that also waste that is defined or considered to be hazardous waste under national legislation is hazardous waste under the Convention. This is an important safeguard clause in the Convention. Even if waste is only considered to be hazardous waste in one of the countries involved in transboundary movement of those wastes, it has to follow the procedures of the Basel Convention of prior informed consent (PIC), or can be subject to import or export bans. The inclusion of national definitions of hazardous waste has as a consequence that the definitions are not fully harmonized. This has to be taken into account when interpreting data that are transmitted under the national reporting obligations. The definition in Article 1.1.a makes reference to two Annexes. Mr. Wielenga explained that the application of Annex I and III of the Convention, when taking decisions on specific cases of transport of hazardous waste, is complicated and may lead to difficulties of understanding between competent authorities. Thus, a specific waste classification system was developed to provide a clear distinction between hazardous wastes and non-hazardous wastes. Annexes VIII and IX of the Convention contains this classification. Annex VIII (also called list A) contains wastes that are hazardous according to Article 1.1.a. of the Convention. Annex IX (also called list B) contains wastes that are not hazardous according to Article 1.1.a. However, in all cases Annex III may be used to demonstrate that, for certain cases, wastes on list A are not hazardous. Waste on list B may contain in, some cases, Annex I materials to an extent causing them to exhibit an Annex III characteristic and hence are hazardous. The lists A and B are a useful tool to apply the definition of waste in the context of transboundary movement. However, Mr. Wielenga stressed that there are wastes that are not covered by entries in either list. List A is limited to wastes that are hazardous under Article 1.1.a. of the Convention and additional wastes that are hazardous under national legislation of certain Parties is therefore not included. List B was developed to clarify the scope of the concept of hazardous waste by listing examples of non-hazardous wastes that are frequently transported over national borders. But once again, some limitations are visible in this list as well. For example, some important non-hazardous wastes, such as certain types of construction and demolition waste and certain types of mining wastes are not included in list B. The Lists A and B are not the only classification system for waste that are relevant. Also customs, in general, use a classification for goods that is useful for the purposes of transboundary movement of waste. The system is developed for goods, but also contains a large number of codes specifically applicable for waste. The system is developed by the World Customs Organization and is used by customs officer all over the world. Some of the codes in this classification system are exclusively for waste, others are used for waste and products (e.g. in the case of electronic equipment). The SBC has developed together with the World Customs Organization a correspondence table linking wastes covered by the Convention to the specific codes in the customs system. This table can be found on the website of the SBC under in the sub-group WCO Harmonised System Committee 12

13 The customs codes for waste provide an important tool to cooperate with customs officers in the control of transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes. After the coffee/tea break a hands-on exercise was done in groups where a number of examples of waste had to be assigned to the most appropriate entries in List A or B. Different uses and fields of application of the definition of waste and of hazardous waste were identified. In particular the following issues were highlighted: The definition of waste and of hazardous waste is a very useful instrument to facilitate issuing licenses to facilities, to determine suitable technologies for waste treatment and to generate data for monitoring and reporting. It is sometime difficult to determine which level of contamination renders a material to be hazardous waste, in particular in the case of complex waste streams such as e-waste. If a material is not listed in the list of hazardous waste that is applicable in a country, one should put the requirement on industry to prove that their waste is non-hazardous, not on the authorities to prove that it is hazardous. Working group activity waste classification 5. Day 2, morning: national inventory 5.1 SBC guidelines and BCRC activities The morning session of day 2 was dedicated to the issue of national inventories. Inventories are undertaken to get information on the amounts of hazardous wastes and other wastes that are generated within a country and the treatment these wastes undergo. The session started with an introduction by Ms. Cynthia Indriani, executive secretary of the BCRC-SEA. Her presentation consisted of two parts: An overview of the methodological guide for national inventories, developed by the SBC; An overview of the activities of the BCRC-SEA in the recent years regarding national inventories. 13

14 Before going into the details of the guide Ms. Indriani first gave a short introduction to the Convention. She mentioned that it was estimated by UNEP that the total quantities of hazardous wastes generated annually worldwide were 250 million tonnes. However, according to the reports sent to the SBC for the year 2003, where only 40 Parties provided information on the generation of hazardous wastes, this amounted to a total of 64 million tonnes only. And according to the reported information, one of the most rapidly growing waste streams is end-of-life equipment. Ms. Cynthia Indriani (BCRC-SEA) In 2000, the SBC published the Methodological Guide for Undertaking National Inventories under the Basel Convention. This guideline can be found on the website of the SBC under Technical matters, in all six UN official languages. One of the main principles of the guidelines is that carrying out an inventory is a preliminary step for the development and implementation of a national policy for hazardous wastes within the implementation of the Basel Convention. It is the responsibility of the Competent Authorities to undertake such inventories and to regularly update them. In order to be able to do so, legal, institutional and technical aids are required. The guidelines provide a specific methodology to do inventories. Inventories are a vital part of a national strategy for environmentally sound management of wastes. And objectives of the inventories can include the development of a national policy on hazardous waste, including priority setting, monitoring, enforcement and waste minimization programmes. It can help countries generate the information and reports required by Article 13 of the Convention, i.e. national reporting. It may also have more specific objectives for national purposes, including risk management. Ms. Indriani also indicated that the reported amounts of waste subject to transboundary movement have been growing considerably over the last 10 years. Most of the movements take place between industrialized countries; but there are also important flows to and from developing countries. National inventories can include data to analyze such flows. 14

15 The execution of a national inventory consists of 3 stages: Preparation of the inventory; Incorporation of the first results; Maintenance of the inventory / permanent inventory. During the preparation stage the persons who will be working on a national inventory are identified, tasks are distributed and the nature of information that is needed is determined. During the preparation it is also determined how information can be obtained and how the data will be processed and stored when collected. It is also considered if there are any existing databases in place in the country that contain information that may be useful for the inventory. Training of participants is also part of the preparation stage. When first doing an inventory it may be useful to seek assistance from external sources or consultants specialized in this field and related areas. There are several methods that can be used for data collection. Questionnaires and field visits may be used to get data from industries. Modeling may be used to extrapolate data from industries to get a full picture if not all companies are included in the data gathering activities. Ideally the inventory is done on an annual basis. Doing inventories requires that the tasks and obligations of the different actors, both from authorities and businesses are defined in acts or regulations. It requires cooperation of all institutions and businesses that are involved. The actual work is best supervised by a small team with members from the key institutions involved. The guidelines contain detailed schemes and explanations on the different stages of an inventory project and constitutes a valuable tool for countries that undertake national inventories. Regarding the recent activities of the BCRC-SEA two initiatives were mentioned: The pilot project on inventory of the Philippines; Regional training workshop on inventory of hazardous waste generation. The pilot project in the Philippines was conducted in 2005 and aimed at demonstrating how a national inventory could be done in the region. The final report of the project can be found on: It also aimed at testing the SBC guidelines and to develop a model database design. It focused on a set of priority waste streams, priority sectors and on National Capital Region (Metro Manila), Region III and Region IV-A. It used a variety of methods for data collection, including site visits, questionnaires and hazardous waste generation ratios (e.g. amount per capita and amount per capacity). The project was successful in demonstrating the possibilities to conduct such a survey. The main constraint to use the data collected for the national reporting of the Basel Convention was that there were difficulties to link the national classification system of hazardous waste in the country with the coding system used in the Basel Convention. The main recommendations were that an update of the SBC guide might be useful for certain aspects and that future projects should focus even more on the preparation phase, in particular taking into account the budget constraints that all projects will face. The workshop on inventories took place in June 2005 in Jakarta, Indonesia, where 9 countries were present. They formulated recommendations for each individual country as well as some general recommendations. A number of countries indicated the need for the development of databases. A number indicated plans to conduct surveys. Others indicated they would first need to assure that the 15

16 legislation would be finalized to allow for conducting the surveys. The common recommendations included a recommendation to update the SBC guide and to develop small targeted training activities in the countries. After the presentation each country gave a short indication about the progress that was made since the last workshop in 2005 in developing and executing national inventories. For those countries that were not present they were invited to provide for a state of play, without necessarily making reference to the situation mentioned in the workshop. The exchange of information showed that some of the countries had made considerable progress since the last workshop, but that conducting an inventory remains an activity during which a large number of challenges have to be overcome. Developing databases also proves to be a process in which significant delays may occur. Other countries have made less progress, in particular those countries that still had to set up legislation. The legislative processes can take very long time and inventories are often not directly the highest political priority after passing the legislation. However, on the whole it was seen that the region had made progress since The experience of the Philippines Ms. Maria Leonie Lynn Ruiz, Science Research Specialist from the Hazardous Waste Management Section of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) in the Philippines gave an overview of the legal system in place in her country regarding the management of toxic substances and hazardous wastes. She explained that the Philippines have their own classification of hazardous wastes which differs from the classification in the Basel Convention. She also explained the legal provisions that were in place to implement the Basel Convention and that the EMB is both the Competent Authority s and Focal Point for the Basel Convention. The Philippines has legislation that allows for the importation of a number of specific recyclable wastes that may contain hazardous substances, including scrap metals (lead-acid batteries and metal-bearing sludge), solid plastic materials, electronic assemblies and scraps, used oil and fly ash, since there are facilities that can manage these wastes in the country. However, all imports of these materials must follow the procedure foreseen in the Basel Convention and Importation Clearance must be secured from EMB. The function of registration of hazardous waste generators and issuance of transport permits have been delegated to the EMB regional offices. Thus, the Central Office relies on the information provided by the regional offices in order to be able to make a national report. An access database has been developed to store data on hazardous waste transporters and Treatment, Storage and Disposal (TSD) facilities and an excel database for the data on generation, import and export of hazardous waste. Currently, the template used for reporting by the regional offices foresees reports per group of hazardous wastes and not for detailed reports per waste type. However, the template has been revised in March 2012 to enable the regions to provide more detailed reports. 16

17 Ms. Leonie Ruiz (EMB, Philippines) Several problems were encountered with the data. The EMB Central Office consolidates the reports received from its regional offices. The data on waste generation showed some very high peaks in Moreover, the data on waste generated did not add up to the amounts treated, disposed and stored. It was difficult to analyze the amounts per specific waste type. For the time being only the totals are being presented. There are several improvements foreseen for the near future. The Procedural Manual for Hazardous Waste Management is currently being revised to update the classification of hazardous wastes to include, among others, waste electrical and electronic equipment. The categories of treatment, storage and disposal facilities are also updated and waste generators are classified into large and small generators. Moreover an online hazardous waste manifest system will be introduced to strengthen tracking and monitoring of hazardous wastes. This will reduce processing time of the data, increase efficiency of managing and tracking of companies, facilitate the checking if waste is allowed to be transported to the indicated facilities and provide real-time information on waste generation and movements. The draft revised procedural manual is expected to be issued in After the coffee-tea break a hands-on exercise was done on an inventory of waste oils. During the presentations and discussion a number of issues came up: Waste oil was considered to be an important waste stream to be covered by inventories. Doing an inventory for this waste stream is a challenge, in particular because there are often a large number of generators (e.g. car service shops) that generate small quantities of waste. Most countries in the region however, feel confident that they would be able to do an inventory for this waste stream, involving data from small generators. It is important to look for the information where it is: therefore link it to the legal obligations for generators, transporters and treatment facilities regarding record keeping and reporting. 17

18 Working group session on national inventory 6. Day 2, afternoon: national reporting The Basel Convention contains an obligation for Parties to report on definitions and policies applied within their country and information on generation and on transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes. During this session Japan and Singapore presented their experiences with the reporting obligations and the SBC presented its views on the subject. 6.1 The experience of Japan The afternoon session started with a presentation on experience for the preparation of national reports in Japan, by Dr. Shunichi Honda, section chief in the Ministry of the Environment in Japan. Before starting his presentation on national reporting, Dr. Honda gave a short briefing of the outcome of a meeting of a technical expert group for the development of a framework for Environmentally Sound Management of hazardous wastes and other waste that took place from 17 to 20 April in Tokyo, Japan. This work was started under a mandate of COP Decision BC10/3 section B and is one of the main building blocks of the decisions of the COP as a result of the Country Led Initiative from Indonesia and Switzerland. The main result of the workshop is that there is now a better common understanding of the different skeleton parts that should constitute the framework that is to be developed. This workshop provided for a good basis for the further work of the technical expert group in view of presenting results to the next COP. 18

19 Dr. Shunichi Honda (MOE Japan) Dr. Honda continued by explaining the legal framework and the definition of waste in Japan, as this is important to understand the system of reporting. He also explained the different responsibilities for municipal waste and industrial wastes when generated and treated inside Japan. He explained that in fact Japan uses two different definitions of waste. For transboundary movement the Japanese Basel Law uses the definition of the Basel Convention. For waste generation and treatment the definition from the waste management and public cleansing law applies. This last law excludes materials with a value from the waste definition. This law does not make a distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous waste. He also explained that under the Basel Law only imports and exports of hazardous wastes are being controlled. For imports and exports of non-hazardous waste for recovery, Japan applies the OECD decisions. This leads to a situation that hazardous wastes that are exported but that have a value (e.g. printed circuit boards) the Basel Control procedure is applied, but internally in Japan there are no data on generation, as this is excluded from the waste management law. Therefore Japan is not in a position to report to the Basel Convention on the amount of hazardous waste generated domestically, because these data will always be incomplete. Moreover, since domestically the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous waste is not made it is not possible to link Japanese data to the Y codes of the Basel Convention. Dr. Honda continued by providing some data on waste generation, the number of treatment facilities and on the imports and exports of hazardous wastes for the year He also provided links where results of reporting for Japan could be found. The main difficulties Japan encounters are the problem of having to report in English and the fact that the Japanese waste definition is not comparable with the definition of the Basel Convention. Another important activity in the region is the Asian Network for Prevention of Illegal Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes. This network has the following objectives: 19

20 Share of common understanding on the status of illegal transboundary movements (TBM) of hazardous wastes; Exchange of national legal framework, statistical data, illegal cases, etc; and Organize an annual workshop for CA/FP to the Basel Convention. The network also publishes reports on the transboundary movements in the Asian region. A study on the flows in 2004 to 2006 can be found in a Japanese study that can be found on: A Japanese study analyzed the situation regarding reporting of TBM to the SBC and found the following issues: Submissions are not made by all the Parties; There are differences of national definitions among the Parties; Because some countries report on the amounts as notified instead of the amounts that are actually moved, National Reporting data are often higher than the amount that are actually moved; There are differences of reported data between importing and exporting Parties; The trend on total amount of TBM was analyzed, not for each type of hazardous waste as these trends would be skewed by heavier hazardous waste types; No uniformity of HW names, e.g lead wastes or wastes composed of lead and others as Y31; No information available of the type of technology D- or R- facilities apply that receive waste; Due to the data gaps and the incomparability of the data it is not possible to establish a good trend of TBM. The trend remains fractural. Dr. Honda finished by presenting some of the key flows of imports and exports of hazardous wastes in the region. He also highlighted the main features and driving forces behind these movements. In the discussion after the presentation the role of the Asian Network was further clarified. It was explained that, due to financial constraints it was not possible at the moment to expand the network beyond the countries that are currently active within the Network. Some attempts have been made to associate the Green Customs Initiative (GCI) in the activities, but this was not successful yet. There will be another attempt to involve the GCI in activities to strengthen border controls. 6.2 National reporting from the point of view of the SBC After the coffee-break Ms. Carla Valle-Klann, programme officer responsible for national reporting within the SBC, gave a presentation on the reporting obligations under the Convention. The mandate for this work comes from Article 13(3) of the Convention and requires Parties to submit information on a yearly basis. It is the focal point of the Convention that is responsible for transmitting the information. In order to be able to fulfill the reporting obligations the Party must have: A focal point and competent authority; Legislation; A national inventory; Coordination at the national level; and A responsible person or group of persons to deal with national reporting. She indicated that currently the information is transmitted in a simplified reporting format as adopted at COP VI. It contains two parts: 20

21 Part I, called Status information, contains information on contact information, legislation and policies in place, as well as information on treatment capacity, sources of technical and financial assistance. This part of the report has to be updated only if developments have occurred. Part II contains information on generation, export and import of hazardous wastes and other wastes. It also contains information on disposals which did not proceed as intended, and accidents. This part has to be updated every year. She explained the different questions included in the questionnaire regarding the status information of the countries. Information on the focal points and competent authorities in the Parties can be found on the SBC website. Information on definitions of waste, bans and restrictions on transboundary movements and details about the notification procedure, as applied in the Parties, is important for other competent authorities when they process notifications. The notification and movement forms can be found on the SBC web-site: A collection of the national legislation in Parties can be found under The status information is a valuable source of information on the status of implementation of the Basel Convention in other Parties and can be used by the Competent Authorities to be informed about this when notifications for import or export are received. It is therefore important to keep this information up to date and to transmit changes in policy and legislation to the SBC. For imports and exports the information to be transmitted concerns the following data: Description of the waste (Y-codes, codes from annex VIII or IX or article 1.1.b. wastes, description); Hazard characteristics of the waste (UN class, H code, description); Amount imported or exported; Country of destination and origin; Transit country (if applicable); Disposal operation (R and D-codes). Ms. Valle-Klann further stressed that it is important to indicate which waste type is involved. Information on wastes that are not covered by the Convention should not be included in the report. If in a given year no imports and/or exports occurred Parties should also indicate this. Regarding the information on generation of hazardous wastes and other wastes the information that is transmitted should allow to distinguish: Hazardous waste according to Article 1.1.a.; Hazardous waste according to Article 1.1.b.; Other wastes (Y codes 46 and 46 in Annex I). The transmission of generation of hazardous wastes per Y code is optional. After reception of the information from the Parties the SBC performs verification on completeness and quality of the information. This may involve frequent contacts with the focal points that transmitted the data. Verified data are copied into the SBC national reporting database and are transferred to the SBC website where the data can be consulted. Parties are requested to make an effort to: 21

22 Provide complete reports in time; Perform quality checks before transmitting the reports to the SBC; Clarify outstanding questions when requested by the SBC. It is important to clarify the outstanding points as this is vital for the quality of the data that are published and that are used by a wide variety of actors. To stimulate Parties to report more frequently and to improve the quality of the reports as submitted, the Implementation and Compliance Committee of the Convention has looked into the situation of national reporting and developed a guidance document on improving national reporting by Parties to the Basel Convention. The Committee has as objective to assist Parties to comply with their obligations under the Convention and to facilitate, promote, monitor and aim to secure the implementation of and compliance with the obligations under the Convention. The committee has developed a guidance document on improving national reporting and a benchmark report with model answers on the different questions in the questionnaire. It has also assessed the status of reporting and identified difficulties faced by Parties in fulfilling their national reporting obligations and their needs for assistance with respect to reporting. The guidance document can be found on the SBC website on the following page: Default.aspx The document provides for a stepwise approach to setting up the structure allowing Parties to fulfill their reporting obligations and to execute the different tasks. As a follow up the Committee has decided to develop, in cooperation with Parties, compliance action plans for a number of Parties. Ms Valle-Klann finished her presentation with some indications about the developments on the side of the Secretariat. Firstly the Secretariat will endeavor improving the reporting system of Basel following the model of the Stockholm Convention insofar possible, as per mandate of the synergies decisions. The Secretariat is also working on new tools for visualization and analysis of the data in the database. A tool to visualize flows on maps will be available soon and she presented the features of this tool in a demo version. Finally there are ongoing discussions with the Stockholm Convention to enhance cooperation, both on the level of the Secretariats and within Parties. The presentation was followed by a hands-on exercise in which groups had to reply to a number of questions regarding the national reporting obligations. 22

23 6.3 The experience of Singapore Working group session on national reporting Mr. Pierre Ng, the Pollution Control Engineer from the National Environment Agency of Singapore, presented a general overview of the challenges for waste management in Singapore and Singapore s experience with national reporting to the Basel Convention. Mr. Pierre Ng (NEA, Singapore) Singapore is a very small country with a land area of only 710 km² with approximately 5 million inhabitants. With limited land space and natural resources, waste management has to be done in a holistic manner to maximize the land area for other development works. For municipal waste, a policy to emphasis reduction, reuse and recycling of waste has been implemented to limit the amounts of waste that have to be disposed of at the offshore landfill site at Semakau Landfill. All incinerable waste will have to be incinerated to reduce the volume prior to being sent to the landfill, 23

24 whilst only non-incinerable waste and incineration ash is being landfilled. Semakau Landfill - the only landfill in Singapore is located on an artificial island in the sea and has only limited possibilities for further expansion. For toxic industrial waste a system has been put into place by which any collection and treatment of waste must be approved by the National Environment Agency. The toxic industrial waste goes to specifically designated treatment installations and residues after treatment go to the landfill site. At all stages of the movement, information has to be transmitted to the Agency via an E-tracking consignment system. Generators, collectors and waste treatment facilities also have to keep registers of the amounts generated, transported and treated. Mr. Ng explained the role of the National Environment Agency as Singapore s Competent Authority to the Basel Convention. Basel import and export licenses issued require industries to provide relevant information to facilitate the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes. This information will also be used by the Agency for reporting to the SBC. The Hazardous Waste (Control of Export, Import and Transit) Act on control of export, import and transit, which is based on the provisions in the Basel Convention, stipulates severe penalties for infringements. For imports and exports of hazardous waste, the Agency uses information from the TradeNet System, used by the Customs to track and monitor imports and exports of goods, including hazardous wastes. The National Environment Agency has access to the system and uses it both for data generation for national reporting as well as for enforcement and prosecution of illegal movement of hazardous wastes. The data are analyzed to that end by using risk profiling to direct the enforcement activities. He gave some examples of illegal imports that were identified via this procedure. Mr. Ng finished by indicating that the key for successful reporting was in the link with legislation, the licensing conditions for installations and the enforcement activities. The main challenges he identified were the complexity of the definitions and classification of hazardous waste and strengthening the engagement of stakeholders in particular with customs agencies in the system. 7. Day 3: conclusions and recommendations Day 3 started with a short presentation by Ms. Carla Valle-Klann on the reporting obligations under the Stockholm Convention. This is not a topic that is directly related to the subject of the workshop. It was nevertheless considered to be appropriate to address because a number of participants also are involved in the reporting on this Convention. Moreover the Secretariats of the Conventions are working closer together on the issues of reporting and after the reorganization of the Secretariats all activities on reporting of the Convention of Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam are combined in the same unit. The presentation was developed as material for a webinar organized in It explains: the objective of reporting; the different reporting obligations; the status of reporting; and the electronic system for reporting The objective of the reporting is to provide information on how a Party is implementing its obligations under the Convention and thus contributes to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Convention. 24

25 are you part of CA are you part of FP involved in nat. Inventory involvement with NR problematic waste The obligations for reporting are included in Article 15 to the Convention and specifies that parties report to the COP on the measures taken to implement the convention and effectiveness of such measures. Parties report to the Secretariat on: statistical data on quantities produced, imported and exported of each chemical listed in Annexes A and B; and a list of states from which each substance was imported or exported. Parties may use reasonable estimates if hard data are not available. There is also a specific obligation for reporting regarding DDT. Parties using DDT report every 3 years on the amounts used, the conditions of such use and its relevance to the Party s disease management strategy. The status of the reporting is as follows. The COP has adopted a format for reporting and a periodicity of every 4 yours to report. The first report was due on 31 December 2006 but the last reports came in until The second report was due on 31 October 2010 but the reports are still coming in. In May % of the Parties had submitted their second round report. There is an electronic system for reporting available on the web at that uses the adopted formats for reporting. There are two accounts for Parties, one for administrators and one technical account. Parties can get their User ID and Password from the Secretariat. Ms. Valle-Klann continued with a presentation of the results of the questionnaire that was sent to the participants prior to the workshop. These results were summarized in three charts. The first chart showed that most of the participants in the workshop were actively involved in the subjects covered by the workshop and therefore the targeted audience. Involvement participants in reporting No Yes The second graph gave an overview of the state of Parties regarding the legal and institutional setting. It showed that in general this area is well developed in the region although there are some countries with some deficiencies in developing legislation, policies, strategies and plans for management of hazardous waste. 25

26 mech.to create nat. Invent means to keep records of HW register of generators procedures to track borders control trained customs use of HS awareness raising CA FP org to deal with HW definition of HW policy for HW legislation legislation for notifications strategy & plan Legal and institutional setting No Yes The third chart showed the responses on questions related to the preconditions to obtain data. In this area, the deficiencies in the region are more critical. Half of the countries do not have a mechanism to create inventories, a register of generators or possibilities to track transports of hazardous waste. Obligations to keep records of hazardous waste are implemented in the majority of countries, but not everywhere. Most countries do border controls and use the HS customs codes in that context, but a large number lack trained customs officers. Preconditions to obtain data No Yes 26

27 After this short introduction, participants worked in 4 groups that discussed the following topics: National inventories; Classification; Electronic systems and tools; Enforcement. Their task was to make a list of issues and possible actions to remediate those, to formulate recommendations and identify possible actors that should work on those recommendations. Additionally, they were asked to determine the expected timeframe to achieve results on those areas. After a presentation by each group on the different items, priorities were determined in a plenary session. Regarding national inventories not all countries are at the same stage of development and not all countries are facing the same problems. The main problems identified were: Absence of a national inventory; Absence of institutional setup and linkage with relevant stakeholders for information collection; Lack of baseline data on production, consumption, disposal and recycling of hazardous wastes; Lack of technical expertise. The group also identified possible solutions, the stakeholders involved in the solution and timeframe for action: Solution Stakeholders involved Time frame Building up institutional capacity Development of inventory guidelines National government / EPA; international bodies including the BCRC National government/epa As soon as possible. Mongolia indicated they would start activities next year. Bhutan and Laos indicated their intentions to start this year Typically 6 months after the funds are available Prioritization of particular waste streams, based on a general inventory National government/epa Once a general baseline overview of possible magnitude of the different waste streams is available Development and establishment of institutional linkages and coordination National government/epa It should be possible to set up these linkages in a few months Strengthening monitoring and enforcement of the existing legislation National customs government/epa, Ongoing 27

28 Regarding classification it was concluded that there should be an exchange forum on this subject. The objective is that every country would produce a table that would link each waste in their national classification to the corresponding codes in the system of Basel. This would start with the link to the Y-codes. Links to the list A and B could be envisaged at a later stage. Countries would undertake to make an initial link between their national classification system and the Y codes of Basel. They would submit cases where they have problems making the match to the forum. The other participants would see if they could help finding a good link. Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia indicated they wanted to join the forum, and invited other countries to join. The BCRS- SEA would serve as a moderator for the forum. Working group discussion Regarding electronic systems and tools development, it was concluded that it would be very helpful: To develop a list of requirements for electronic systems that can be used by countries that want to set up their national databases in the areas related to the implementation of the Basel Convention (e.g. database for tracking import and export, database to manage information on generation of hazardous wastes and other wastes in the country, among others); To develop a smart excel file for tracking transports; To develop an electronic tool to produce the report for Basel Convention on data collected nationally. Regarding customs and enforcement the following difficulties were identified: Identification if a waste is hazardous or not; Lack of capacity to control transboundary movements; Insufficient sharing of information on transboundary movements. Possible measures that could be taken include: Training and guidance of the customs officials; More frequent inspections/investigations; 28