NORTH-SOUTH TRADE IN RECYCLABLE WASTE: ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF BASEL

This paper is based on my Honours thesis written at the University of Adelaide in 1997. Without wishing to implicate them, I am grateful to Kym Anderson, Keith Maskus, Richard Damania, Richard Pomfret and Tin Nguyen for the generous use of their time and helpful comments. ISBN 0 86396 447 8 NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY During the 1980s, domestic landfill sites in some advanced industrialised countries (the ‘North’) began to reach their limit and countries turned to international trade to solve their wastes disposal problems. The growth in North-South waste trade led to concern over the dumping of hazardous wastes in developing countries (the ‘South’) resulting in the UNEP mandating the Global Convention on Transboundary Movements in Hazardous Wastes. The Basel Convention provided for a system to monitor and control the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes. It was unanimously accepted by the 116 states represented on the 22 March 1989. Further developments to the Basel Convention gave rise to numerou