Page 48 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

AI is also being used to optimize WEEE mobile collection for take-back schemes in Poland.
Mobile, on-demand collection schemes require that waste is taken back from household
residents, at their request. This type of waste equipment collection is comfortable for
residents as they can indicate day and time windows for the take-back. Collection companies
are interested in lowering operational costs required for the service. This lowering includes
selecting enough vehicles and employees, and then minimizing the routes’ length in order
to achieve savings in fuel consumption, and the lowering of emissions.

The move toward responsible and environmentally conscious handling of waste and hazardous
materials has been a special focus of the Basel Convention. Box 8 below provides some detail on the
Convention’s activities in this regard.

Box 8: The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal 136

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements
of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global environmental treaty on hazardous
and other wastes. It has 187 member countries (Parties) as of July 2019 and aims to protect
human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation,
management, transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes.
Firstly, the Basel Convention regulates the transboundary movements of hazardous and
other wastes applying the ‘Prior Informed Consent’ procedure (i.e. shipments made without
consent are illegal). Shipments to and from non-Parties are illegal unless there is a special
agreement. Each Party is required to introduce appropriate national or domestic legislation
to prevent and punish illegal traffic in hazardous and other wastes, thereby, making illegal
traffic criminal.

Secondly, the Convention obliges its Parties to ensure that hazardous and other wastes
are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner (ESM). To this end,
Parties are expected to minimize the quantities that are moved across borders, to treat and
dispose of waste as close as possible to their place of generation and to prevent or minimize
the generation of waste at source. Strict controls must be applied from the moment of
generation of a hazardous waste to its storage, transport, treatment, reuse, recycling,
recovery and final disposal.

Some waste streams that the Basel Convention is focusing on are:

• Electronic and electrical waste (‘e-waste or WEEE’) such as mobile phones and computers
• Mercury and asbestos wastes
• Plastic wastes
• Illegal dumping of hazardous and other wastes

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