Switzerland and Ghana join forces to campaign against e-waste

Switzerland and Ghana say e-waste should be among the exports subject to authorisation Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Switzerland and Ghana want to jointly promote the issue of electronic waste internationally, saying e-waste should be among the exports subject to authorisation worldwide. Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga signed a letter to this effect in Accra on Wednesday.

The two countries said they wanted to work together politically to ensure that a new global regulation is introduced, according to which e-waste may only be exported to countries that have agreed to the transaction beforehand.

To this end, an annex would have to be added to the Basel ConventionExternal link. The Convention regulates the international movement of hazardous and toxic wastes and was created to ensure that hazardous waste from countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) cannot be exported without the consent of developing countries.

The idea was that states that benefit from hazardous substances should also be responsible for their disposal.

The Basel Convention was created on the initiative of Switzerland and Hungary and was signed in Basel in 1989. It entered into force in 1992, and to date more than 180 countries have acceded to the treaty. The US, which exports 80% of its electronic waste, is still not a member.