Basel Action Network (BAN)
Sunday, March 9th, 2008BAN is the world’s only organization focused on confronting the global environmental injustice and economic inefficiency of toxic trade (toxic wastes, products and technologies) and its devastating impacts. Working at the nexus of human rights and environment, we confront the issues of environmental justice at a macro level, preventing disproportionate and unsustainable dumping of the world’s toxic waste and pollution on our global village’s poorest residents. At the same time we actively promote sustainable and just solutions to our consumption and waste crises — banning waste trade, while promoting green, toxic free and democratic design of consumer products.
BAN is named for the Basel Convention, a multilateral environmental agreement, which in 1994 passed a landmark decision to reverse this deadly trend and ban the export of hazardous waste for any reason from rich to poorer countries. The Basel Ban Amendment is a clear unabashed trade barrier erected for the environment, and for human rights, supported by developing countries in recognition of the present disparate economic playing fields that, if exploited, will shift pollution problems to those least able to deal with them, rather than solve them at their source. Part of BAN’s mission is to protect this groundbreaking, precedent-setting decision from attack by industry and free-trade zealots that now see the Ban Amendment as a threat to globalization-as-usual.
BAN Photo Gallery: See photos of workers in Guiyu, China and Lagos, Africa processing hazardous electronic waste, such as computers, monitors, and TV’s, which are often imported from the United States and other rich countries. Though not pictured, this is happening in other poor countries as well, such as India. Unfortunately much of the imported electronic equipment cannot be repaired and is instead dumped and often burned near rivers or canals or dumped into them. Electronics are full of hundreds of toxic and often carcinogenic chemicals and even more are created when they are burned. The workers work without any gloves, eye, or respiratory protection often with barefoot children nearby or even helping. The “recycling” or processing of e-waste in this manner is very harmful to both health and the environment. The groundwater in Guiyu is completely contaminated to the point where fresh water is trucked in constantly for drinking purposes.
BAN has produced two groundbreaking films. The first film was “Exporting Harm: The Hi-Tech Trashing of Asia”. The second film is The Digital Dump: Exporting Re-Use and Abuse to Africa. This is the trailer only. BAN was also featured in National Geographic Magazine in January 2008: High-Tech Trash: Will your discarded TV end up in a ditch in Ghana?
When recycling your electronics please make sure that the recycler recycles responsibly and does not ship overseas! And let others know about this issue. Here is a link from BAN to find a responsible e-cycler. Also you may want to find out how your country stands on international toxics.