India may block consensus on hazardous waste

A team of officials of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) will be leaving for Cartagena,Colombia,at the end of this week to be part of the 10th Conference of Parties (COP-10) of the Convention between October 17 and 21,where a consensus is expected to be adopted.

The process to get the countries to find a consensus on the ban on the movement of hazardous waste from developed nations to developing ones,was headed by Indonesia and Switzerland in what is called a ‘Country-Led Initiative’ following the last conference in 2008. The COP-10 is hoping to be the host of such a consensus.

A top official of the ministry said India,a major player to have always opposed such a ban thereby upsetting the success of the treaty,has now firmed up the official line of seeking specific conditions of the ban,and seek an acceptable definition of the ban before even considering joining any consensus. The main concern,the official said,was about the survival of the domestic waste recycling industry.

“The ban will adversely impact the secondary recycling industry in the country. We cannot commit anything without discussing it further,” he told The Indian Express. “We are not against any consensus so long as it does not curtail our freedom to decided what we do or do not want to import.”

But the concern among the proponents of the treaty is that since China has agreed on the ban,and recently Japan and Canada have agreed to the fixed-time approach,India,with its vast secondary recycling industry — legal as well as illegal — offering cheap labour,will be a natural destination of scrap containing toxic metals like cadmium,lead,used batteries and the like. As it is,as per Central Pollution Control Board estimates,the country generates around six million tonnes of such waste.

The government has never gauged the quantum of imported hazardous waste to aid its policy decision.