North-South Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes - the Basel Ban and Environmental Justice

Abstract

The social and environmental injustice arising from the transboundary movement of hazardous waste has remained a persistent feature of the global economy. The issue gained political traction in the mid- to late-1980s and remains salient today. In 2015 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) again highlighted how ‘[d]ue to high costs of treating and disposing hazardous and other wastes, weak environmental regulations, poor enforcement and low environmental awareness, illegal transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and other waste from developed countries to developing countries have become an increasing global concern’.