The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was adopted in Basel, Switzerland on 22 March 1989. The Convention was initiated in response to numerous international scandals regarding hazardous waste trafficking that began to occur in the late 1980s. The Convention entered into force on 5 May 1992 and today has its Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. BAN web page. Includes country status table; text of the treaty in English, French & Spanish; Conference of the Parties Reports; Competent Authorities list; and a link to the Basel Secretariat.
The electronics industry is learning to do without: it is having to abandon one of its long-time staples, lead-tin solder. For decades lead-tin solder has been used to attach electronic components to printed wiring boards. However, with the body of evidence pointing to serious adverse health effects of lead, the search for a replacement has spawned intense effort in the electronics industry and in universities.
New and pending regulations requiring product take-back by manufacturers at the time of disposal are intended to create a new era of industrial ecology and environmental sustainability. However, the intended benefits of the current legislation can be confounded by obsolescence in product design based upon advances in science and technology and also by the introduction of more environmentally benign product designs.