Through its members, EuRIC represents the vast majority of e-waste recycling facilities in Europe and therefore has a strong interest in providing comments about the incorporation of the newly adopted Basel Convention entries into the OECD Decision which will enter into force on 1 January 2025 and concern all shipments of e-waste (new entries Y49 and A1181) as well as the objection raised by Japan on 15 August 2022.

The new Basel entries aim at directing e-waste that is moved transboundary to environmentally sound facilities with state-of-the-art technology. As noted in the Japan objection, OECD Members generally have a much greater capacity to ensure the proper recovery of e-wastes, including recycling infrastructure and legal frameworks for environmental protection and environmentally sound management of waste. Therefore, EuRIC strongly supports the objection raised by Japan and its proposal to retain GC010 and GC020 in Appendix 3 Part II and to not subject all transboundary movements of e-waste within the OECD to the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure.

Read more on EuRIC’s views on the proposed integration of Basel e-waste entries into the OECD Decision by consulting our position below.