KINGSTON, Jamaica — Effective January 1, 2025, persons wishing to export waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) will be subjected to the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure in accordance with amendments to the Basel Convention.

This is according to the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

The Basel Convention e-waste amendment was agreed on by the Conference of Parties in 2022 (COP-15) to enlarge the control of the transboundary movement of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or E-waste).

Under the PIC procedure, NEPA said it is required to seek and obtain prior approval from the competent authorities of transit and importing states before granting a permit for the transboundary movement of e-waste from the island.

The agency said Jamaica had been observing this procedure for some time, however, the amendment will allow for greater control over the trading of e-waste, as all items, whether hazardous or non-hazardous, will now be subjected to the PIC procedure.

It said the amendment was deemed necessary against the background that non-functional used electrical and electronic equipment and their components were being dumped in developing countries.

According to NEPA, exports of e-waste were initially intended for the trade of functioning equipment to receiving countries (hence not classified as hazardous), however, it was found that much of the equipment exported were non-functional materials that were being traded under the guise as functional, and therefore could only be discarded. As such, it said the disposed e-waste posed serious environmental hazards for receiving nations which were, in the main, developing countries.

The danger posed from the export of non-functional e-wastes was that they were typically burnt at dump sites to reduce volumes and caused the release of toxic substances, sometimes up to 1000 different toxic chemicals into the environment, NEPA said.

It noted that amendments to some of the annexes of the Basel Convention were made with the objective of increasing the scope of control on the transboundary movement of e-waste thereby minimising harm to the environment. The impacted annexes are II, VIII and IX. Hazardous e-wastes containing what the Basel Convention refers to as annex I elements like mercury, lead and brominated flame retardant that display Annex III characteristics, therefore, they are corrosive, explosive, poisonous or toxic, will see improved regulations.

The agency said the amendment requires the addition and deletion of entry codes from some annexes. The electronic and electrical waste that were assigned deleted codes from annexes VIII and IX have been reassigned to new codes that were added under annexes II and VIII. All items are still subject to trade. However, non-hazardous e-waste that were previously not in need of prior informed consent (PIC) to be traded (codes B1110 and B4030 [single-use cameras] that are in annex IX), will require PIC as of 1 January 2025 as per the amendments. They are represented by entry code Y49 in annex II.

Jamaica’s legislation which implements the Basel Convention is the Natural Resources (Hazardous Waste) (Control of Transboundary Movement) Regulations, 2002. This regulation will be updated to reflect the Basel Convention’s e-waste amendments, which are represented as follows:

Annex II: This consists of waste from electrical and electronic equipment eg resistors and bare printed circuit boards. Amendment: Addition of entry code, [Y49] — waste electrical and electronic equipment, resistors, bare printed circuit boards;

Annex VIII: Annex VIII consists of rechargeable batteries cadmium — used in rechargeable computer batteries, contacts, and switches, mobile phones and mercury — used in the liquid crystal displays (lcds) of mobile phones and flat screen computer monitors as well as in switches, batteries and fluorescent lamps. Amendment: Deletion of entry code [A1180] — waste electrical and electronic assemblies or scrap containing components such as accumulators and other batteries included mercury-switches, glass from cathode-ray tubes and other activated glass and PCB-capacitors or contaminated with annex I constituents. Addition of entry code, [A1181] — rechargeable batteries containing cadmium which is used in rechargeable computer batteries, contacts and switches, waste electrical and electronic equipment with a component containing or contaminated with lead, mercury, organohalogen compounds or other annex I constituents & displays annex III characteristics; and

Annex IX: Annex IX consists of 1. Electrical and electronic assemblies, eg electronic assemblies consisting only of metals or alloys. 2. Waste electrical and electronic assemblies or scrap (including printed circuit boards) 3. Electrical and electronic assemblies (including printed circuit boards, electronic components and wires) destined for direct reuse only. Amendment: Deletion of entry code [B1110] electronic components & wires destined for direct reuse and not for recycling or final disposal, metal electronic assemblies and entry code [B4030], used single-use cameras with batteries.