Groups eye shipping industry for Basel enforcement

By Colin Staub of Resource Recycling

A number of environmental groups wrote to shipping lines urging them to stop carrying scrap plastics. | Jordi Prats/Shutterstock

Activists have contacted the world’s largest shipping lines, asking them to stop carrying loads that violate new Basel Convention regulations covering the global scrap plastic trade.

Numerous organizations, including the Basel Action Network (BAN), The Last Beach Cleanup, Greenpeace and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), wrote letters to nine shipping companies this month. They announced the campaign, which is part of a wider effort called the Plastic Waste Transparency Project, on Feb. 23.

The letters reference the Basel Convention amendment that took effect Jan. 1. The regulations add new requirements for scrap plastic shipments between countries that are party to the Basel Convention. They also generally prohibit trade of scrap plastic between party and non-party countries such as the U.S.

The regulations have already had a significant impact on the global trade of scrap plastic. And their effects come on top of multiple years of declining U.S. scrap plastic exports, according to the Department of Commerce.