Brussels, Belgium. September 28, 2022. The toxic waste-laden aircraft carrier SÃO PAULO is on its way back to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. IBAMA, the Brazilian Agency that had approved the export, was forced to recall the ship after Turkey barred its entrance on August 26, 2022, pending a proper and credible accounting of the volumes of hazardous wastes on board, including asbestos, PCBs, toxic paints, and radioactive wastes.
Read MoreTurkish Authorities Ban the Entrance of Toxic Aircraft Carrier “SÃO PAULO”→
/Aliağa, Turkey. September 2, 2022. Turkey has finally banned the toxic aircraft carrier SÃO PAULO from entering its national waters. For weeks, local environmental and labour rights groups, supported by international NGOs, have been protesting the voyage of the vessel from Brazil to Aliağa, demanding compliance with the Basel and Barcelona Conventions.
Read MoreTurkey Demands New Survey of Massive Toxic Warship Before Import→
/Ankara, Turkey. August 23, 2022. The Brazilian government and Sok Denizcilik Tic.Ve Ltd.Sti (SOK) of Aliaga, Turkey, the buyer of the Aircraft Carrier SÃO PAULO, were sent scrambling on August 9, when Turkish authority Eyüp Karahan General Director of Environmental Management, on behalf of Minister Çevre Yönetimi Genel Müdürü, sent a letter to the Brazilian agency IBAMA, Competent Authority for the Basel Convention, requiring a new Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) to be conducted prior the export:
Read MoreBrazil Silent as Renegade Aircraft Carrier Moves in Defiance of Injunction and International Law→
/Brussels, Belgium. August 17, 2022. Environmental, human rights, and labor organisations from around the world are sounding the alarm over the former Brazilian aircraft carrier SÃO PAULO, now being towed across the Atlantic towards Turkey in defiance of international and Brazilian law.
Read MoreToxic Warship "Clemenceau II": Starts Voyage from Brazil to the Mediterranean Sea→
/Rio de Janeiro, Brussels, Izmir. 4 August 2022. Reports from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil confirm that the sister ship of the infamous aircraft carrier CLEMENCEAU, formerly known as French warship FOCH, and most recently named the SÃO PAULO, has now been placed under tow on a 6000-mile journey to Aliaga, Turkey, where it is to be scrapped. Environmental groups around the world are denouncing Brazil’s export and disposal plans in Turkey as illegal and unsafe.
Read MoreDelegates and Environmentalists Celebrate New Global Restrictions on e-Waste Trade→
/Geneva, Switzerland (June 17, 2022) – After eight days of detailed and stressful negotiations this week and last, the Parties to the Basel Convention at their 15th meeting (COP15) held in Geneva agreed by consensus to the "Swiss-Ghana Amendments." These amendments establish new definitions of hazardous and non-hazardous electronic waste, and ensure that these two categories of e-waste will either be banned from trade or at a minimum require notification by the exporting country and consent by the importing country prior to export.
Read MoreEnvironmental Groups Claim that New Rules Restricting Plastic Trade are being Ignored→
/Geneva, Switzerland (June 14, 2022) – At the ongoing meeting of the Basel Convention, the Basel Action Network (BAN) and member organizations of the Break Free from Plastic movement (BFFP) in a side event, presented evidence of continued plastic waste trade, that is exported primarily from the rich developed countries to weaker economies, and charged these exporting countries with failing to uphold the agreements to control plastic waste exports made at the Basel Convention in 2019, which came into force on January 1, 2021.
Read MoreTerraCycle accused of recycling failures and consumer misinformation in BBC Panorama revelations→
/Author: Louis Gore-Langton
The ongoing saga of corruption allegations against TerraCycle’s UK operations was brought to a head last night in BBC Panorama’s investigation Recycling: Where Does My Rubbish Go? Company CEO Tom Szaky was confronted with evidence that his UK waste handler is a sanctioned criminal, that his business system’s collection and recycling rates are extremely low, and that the scheme is likely misleading consumers.
Read MoreEPA to weigh regulating common plastic as hazardous waste→
/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.
Read MoreRich countries are illegally exporting plastic trash to poor countries, data suggests→
/Author: Joseph WInters
At the beginning of last year, 187 countries took steps to limit the export of plastic trash from wealthy to developing countries. It’s not working as well as they hoped. According to an analysis of global trade data by the nonprofit Basel Action Network, or BAN, violations of a U.N. agreement regulating the international plastic waste trade have been “rampant” over the past year.
Read MoreThe battle against global e-waste dumping reaches tipping point→
/Author: Anand Chandrasekhar
Switzerland is pushing to modify an international accord so that all electric and electronic waste shipped abroad gets prior consent from destination countries. Not everyone is on board.
Read MoreEnvironmental groups move quickly and block the export of German plastic waste to Vietnam→
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Waste shipment authorities and COSCO shipping lines responded swiftly to a letter sent to them in the Greek port of Piraeus, early this morning by the Basel Action Network (BAN) as part of a coalition effort to prevent European wastes from being exported.
Related Links:
Recycling Magazine - Export of German plastic waste to Vietnam has been blocked
EUWID Recycling - German plastic waste intercepted en route to Vietnam
The EU agrees: the recycling of ships is a matter of global environmental justice→
/In its proposal for a new regulation on waste shipments published last week, the European Commission surprised many observers by rejecting their earlier romance with the Hong Kong Convention and return to the Basel Convention's affirmation that the Global South should not become the world's dumping ground for hazardous wastes, even when those wastes are ships.
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