BASEL CONVENTION
TECHNICAL GUIDELINES
ON WASTES COLLECTED
FROM HOUSEHOLDS
GUIDELINES
BASEL
CONVENTION
TECHNICAL
GUIDELINES
on Household
Wastes
Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements on
Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
By Fong Chew Sing
No. 8
T
he Malaysian solid waste management
structure and system took a big leap after
the introduction of the National Strategy
Plan for Solid Waste Management by the then
Ministry of Housing and Local Government in
2005. Subsequent to this, the Solid Waste and
Public Cleansing Act, Act 672 was enacted in
2007. Along with this, the Solid Waste and Public
Cleansing Corporation Act, Act 673 was also
enacted simultaneously.
The National Strategy Plan for Solid Waste
Management linked its vision to one of the key
thrust policies of Vision 2020 that is pursuing
environmentally sustainable development to
reinforce long-term growth which strengthens
Malaysia’s commitment to the Rio Declaration of
1992.
The “Technical guidelines on wastes collected
from household" issued by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) which was
adopted by the meeting of the conference of
the Parties to the Basel Convention will serve
as a good guide for the stakeholders including
engineers involved in the solid waste management
industry from the Basel Convention perspective.
ABOUT BASEL CONVENTION
The Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and their Disposal was adopted on March 22,
1989 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in
Basel, Switzerland, in response to a public outcry
following the discovery, in the 1980s, in Africa and
other parts of the developing world of deposits of
toxic wastes imported from abroad.
The overarching objective of the Basel
Convention is to protect human health and
environment against adverse effects of hazardous
wastes. Its scope of application covers a wide
range of wastes as “hazardous wastes” based
on their origin and/or composition and their
characteristics, as well as two types of wastes
defined as “other wastes” – household waste and
incinerator ash.
INTRODUCTION TO THE GUIDELINES
Household wastes are not normally regarded as
hazardous, since they consist almost entirely of
45