Updating and or Development of Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management of Wastes Consisting of, Containing or Contaminated with Persistent Organic Pollutants

By decision BC-15/6, the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention adopted the General technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants, and specific technical guidelines that had been updated to address the chemicals listed in the Annexes to the Stockholm Convention at COP-9. The adopted technical guidelines are available at the COP-15 webpage and at the Publications page.

Work following COP-15

As per paragraph 4 of decision BC-15/6, the COP decided to extend the mandate of the small intersessional working group (SIWG), to assist the updating of technical guidelines on the ESM of POPs wastes.

As per the same decision, Parties and observers were invited to submit to the Secretariat by 30 October 2022:

  • Comments on the low POP content values in the different technical guidelines (paragraph 7)
  • Comments on the General technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants (UNEP/CHW.15/6/Add.1/Rev.1) regarding:
    • The parts enclosed in square brackets in section IV.G.29(e)
    • Additional guidance for section IV.G.4
    • Information on further or updated examples of national legislation for inclusion in annex II, including on any concentration limits, as well as links to online sources where such legislation can be found (paragraph 8)

As per paragraph 11, the Secretariat and the SIWG were invited to prepare draft technical guidelines (General technical guidelines and technical guidelines on PFOS and PFOA guidelines to include PFHxS, its salts and PFHxS-related compounds), based on the comments submitted by 30 October 2022, for consideration by the OEWG-13 meeting taking place in Geneva from 21 to 23 February 2023.

Comments submitted by 30 October 2022 are available here.

The SIWG held a meeting to discuss the two guidelines above-mentioned to prepare them for the OEWG-13 and COP-16 consideration. Information on the meetings of the SIWG is available on the website.

Comments and/or queries should be sent to Ms. Carla Valle-Klann, Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions (Email: carla.valle at un.org).

Work following COP-14

As per decision BC-14/4, Parties and others were invited to:

  • Submit to the Secretariat, three months in advance of the OEWG-12 (23 March 2020), comments on the low POP content values included in the technical guidelines. Comments received on this topic were compiled in document UNEP/CHW/OEWG.12/INF/6 and presented to the OEWG-12.

The Secretariat worked with the help of consultants and in consultation with the SIWG on the updates of three documents (General technical guidelines, technical guidelines on PFOS and PFOA guidelines and technical guidelines on pesticide POPs).

Information on the meetings of the SIWG is available on the website.

At the OEWG-12 online segment in September 2020, an agreement was made for Parties and others to submit comments on the draft revised technical guidelines, UNEP/CHW/OEWG.12/INF/7, UNEP/CHW/OEWG.12/INF/8 and UNEP/CHW/OEWG.12/INF/9. Comments made during the OEWG-12 online segment and following it, on the draft revised technical guidelines are available here.

At the online segment of COP-15 in July 2021, an agreement was made for Parties and others to submit comments on the draft revised technical guidelines by 15 November 2021. Comments submitted are available here.

During OEWG-12 face-to-face meeting, the following technical guidelines have been revised: UNEP/CHW/OEWG.12/INF/7/Rev.2, UNEP/CHW/OEWG.12/INF/8/Rev.2, UNEP/CHW/OEWG.12/INF/9/Rev.2)