From November 18 to 22, the Secretariat of the Basel Convention convened the second meeting of the Basel Convention Small Intersessional Working Group (SIWG) on technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of waste batteries in Geneva, Switzerland. More than 40 participants attended the meeting, including representatives of parties from China, Uruguay, the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Brazil, Tanzania, and Japan, and observers from the United States, relevant enterprises, and non-governmental organizations. The objective of the meeting is to advance the work on the development and updating of the technical guidelines on environmentally sound management of waste lead-acid batteries and other waste batteries.
Prof. Jinhui Li of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University/Executive Director of Basel Convention Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific (hereinafter referred to as "BCRC China"), who is nominated by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, and Ms. Judith Torres of the Ministry of Environment of Uruguay, who is approved by the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, were the co-chairs of the meeting on the revision of the Basel Convention's technical guidelines for environmentally sound management of waste lead-acid batteries. The meeting focused on the legislative and policy framework for waste lead storage batteries, the extended producer responsibility system, sorting and collection, transportation and storage, recycling, health, and safety, as well as the treatment of electrolyte and waste plastics, and resulted in a revised draft of the text of the guidelines.
Prof. Jinhui Li and Mr. Chiel Berends of the European Environment Agency, are co-chairs of the development of the Basel Convention's technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of other waste batteries. The meeting discussed the types of batteries to which the guidelines apply, the legislative and policy frameworks, sorting and collection, recycling, health and safety, and public participation, and developed proposals for revisions to the text of the guidelines about the various chapters.
Mr. Dong Qingyin of BCRC China, a member of the working group nominated by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, also attended the meeting.
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