Three weeks have passed since the toxic aircraft carrier SÃO PAULO came back to Brazil after Turkey blocked its import and the Brazilian Environmental Agency IBAMA required its return. Yet, the vessel is still drifting more than 12 miles off the coast of the State of Pernambuco, while both the Brazilian Navy and IBAMA fail to demand and provide a safe haven to prevent potential harm to the marine environment. International and national NGOs[1] are calling for urgent action.

At the 15th Conference of Parties in Geneva this June, even as we celebrated bringing non-hazardous electronic waste within the scope of the Basel Convention's control procedures for the first time, we were unable to make progress to prevent very hazardous electronic wastes from being allowed to escape the Basel Control procedures if Parties follow Paragraph 32(b) of the Guidelines on the Transboundary Movement of e-waste adopted at COP12 on an "interim basis." Under that flawed section of the Guidelines, as long as an exporter claims their container loads of e-scrap are destined for repair, then all authorities can look the other way as Basel does not apply.

Author: E.A. Crunden

EPA may finally classify a commonly used plastic as hazardous waste, following a long legal struggle with advocates. The Center for Biological Diversity said this afternoon that it has reached a deal with EPA over polyvinyl chloride, more well known as PVC or vinyl, following a decade of back-and-forth.