The second online meeting of the small intersessional working group (SIWG) on the revision of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (hereinafter referred to as the Basel Convention) Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management of Plastic Wastes (hereinafter referred to as the Technical Guidelines) was successfully held on 13-17 December 2021. The meeting was organized by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions and was attended by more than 40 SIWG members and observers.

China, Japan and the United Kingdom are the lead countries for the revision of the technical guidelines, and Nana Zhao, Assistant Director of the Basel Convention Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific, as the representative of the Government of China, shared responsibility for the revision of the technical guidelines with the representatives of Japan and the United Kingdom and, as co-chair, co-chaired the online meeting with the representatives of Japan and the United Kingdom.

The meeting consisted of five agendas: opening, organisational matters, advice on technical guidelines, other matters and next steps, and closing. Discussions at the meeting focused on the following areas: (i) waste categories related to plastic waste under the purview of the Basel Convention, (ii) prevention and minimisation of plastic waste under the Basel Convention, (iii) sources and classification of plastic waste, (iv) interpretation of the terminology used in the annexes to the Convention on ‘virtually uncontaminated’ and ‘virtually unmixed’ plastic waste, and (v) the definition and scope of chemical recycling of plastic wastes.

The Basel Convention Technical Guidelines on Environmentally Sound Management were developed pursuant to paragraph 8 of Article 4 of the Basel Convention to provide guidance to parties on the treatment, disposal and transboundary movement of hazardous and other wastes. More than 30 technical guidelines have been developed over the 30 years since the Basel Convention was signed. The Basel Convention Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management of Plastic Wastes were adopted in 2002 and revised in accordance with the decision of the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention. The revised guidelines will provide guidance on the types and characteristics of plastics, the requirements of the international conventions for the management of plastics wastes, the legal and regulatory framework, the prevention and reduction of plastics wastes, identification and inventory, sampling, analysis, monitoring, collection, packaging, storage, transport, recycling (mechanical, physical, chemical), energy recovery, and final disposal.

Due to time constraints, the full content of the guidelines could not be discussed at this meeting, and a further meeting will be held in mid-January 2022 to discuss them.