Updates to the Basel Convention, an international treaty regulating the trade of various types of end-of-life materials, will come into effect Jan. 1. | Don Bendickson/Shutterstock
With just weeks to go before new e-scrap trading regulations take effect worldwide, companies are feeling cautiously optimistic that trade disruption will be softer than it could have been.
That’s partially because Canada will continue accepting e-scrap from the U.S. despite certain provisions of the Basel Convention, an international treaty regulating the trade of various types of end-of-life materials, according to a government agency.
“It’s not an easy topic for the government, they have to balance many priorities,” Kunal Sinha, Glencore’s global head of recycling, said in an interview. Glencore operates a smelter in Canada that is a major downstream outlet for U.S.-sourced e-scrap. “I would highly commend them that they took a very pragmatic approach.”
The convention was amended in 2022 to cover a wider array of e-scrap, with the new rules coming into effect on Jan. 1. E-Scrap News has covered the possible implications for U.S. recycling companies in a variety of ways over the last two years.
What exactly is changing
Basel controls primarily cover e-scrap that contains a certain threshold of hazardous metals or chemicals such as cadmium, mercury, lead or polychlorinated biphenyls. That control requires prior informed consent, a process through which the receiving country’s environmental regulation agency signals to the sending country’s equivalent agency that the material is OK to be imported.
E-scrap that doesn’t contain much of those substances hasn’t previously been controlled by Basel and can typically freely trade between countries. There are some exceptions, because some e-scrap like circuit boards could have varying levels of those substances. The 2022 amendment effectively moves almost all e-scrap into the controlled category.
There are still some exceptions, including exports of electronics destined for reuse, rather than commodity recovery, and exports of e-scrap that has been processed down to purely metal fractions without any plastic or other contaminants. These excepted material types will still be permitted to be traded without Basel control.
Effects vary widely by country
Broadly speaking, companies importing and exporting any e-scrap between Basel-party countries will need to go through the consent process before those shipments can occur. That may simply be a matter of additional paperwork and possible delays, but each country’s consent process differs.
Non-Basel parties – the U.S. is one of only a few worldwide – are in a different position. In the absence of special exceptions, party countries are not allowed to trade Basel-controlled materials with non-party countries.
But there are exceptions and nuances, particularly for countries within the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is a group of 38 economically wealthy nations, including all of North America, most of Europe, and certain countries in South America and Asia.
The OECD countries have an agreement between member states that supersedes Basel. In effect, the agreement allows e-scrap shipments between these countries without Basel requirements like prior informed consent, while still maintaining the environmental protections required under Basel. The way the OECD agreement works is that any new amendments to Basel are automatically incorporated into the OECD agreement, unless a member country objects.
Basel experts said that, if the Basel rules were incorporated into the OECD agreement, companies in the U.S. would be able to continue trading e-scrap with all of those OECD member nations; they would just need to go through the prior informed consent process.
But the government of Japan, an OECD member, objected to the automatic incorporation of the new Basel rules into the OECD agreement. The country preferred an approach that would continue to allow some e-scrap, including some circuit boards, to be traded between members without control. The move drew praise from some recycling industry groups.
Japan’s objection stopped the automatic incorporation, and during meetings in 2023 and 2024, OECD members didn’t reach a consensus on how to incorporate the amendments into their agreement. So the OECD announced in June that there would be no uniform standard for how the new rules are enforced among OECD nations. Some might follow the new stricter e-scrap rules, and others, like Japan, might continue under the previous rules focused more on hazardous materials.
Canada shifts position in final weeks before rule change
Until recently, there was uncertainty over how e-scrap shipments between the U.S. and Canada would be handled under the new Basel rules, but Canada has clarified its position.
The country supported the electronics amendments when they came before the Basel Convention in 2022. So it was noteworthy that, on Nov. 14, the Canadian government notified the United Nations that the country was “unable to accept the amendments prior to their entry into force.”
In a statement to E-Scrap News, Eleni Armenakis, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada, the environmental agency of the Canadian government, laid out the government’s decisionmaking process.
After the amendments were passed by Basel parties, the way the Basel Convention works is that each party country must incorporate the changes into its domestic regulatory framework. Canada began that process in 2023, proposing changes in line with the updated Basel rules.
Once those changes were proposed, the government heard from industry stakeholders that “the proposed controls could negatively impact the competitiveness of the Canadian e-waste recycling industry and critical mineral sectors, in particular for imports and exports of e-waste with the U.S.,” Armenakis said in the statement.
“As a result, Canada will be conducting additional engagement with stakeholders in 2025 on regulatory amendments to strengthen controls on e-waste while providing flexibilities within an integrated North American economic zone and supporting Canada’s critical mineral strategy and security,” the statement added.
The move was puzzling to the Basel Action Network, a group that advocates for stronger Basel controls and administers the e-Stewards standard. Executive Director Jim Puckett told E-Scrap News there were options for Canada to cleanly incorporate the Basel rules while still allowing U.S. trade, but the country simply didn’t do that.
“Canada appears to be a bit sleepy on this matter, as it now seems they will likely be the only country that will not be accepting the new amendments by Jan. 1, which is not a good look for competency in governance,” Puckett said.
As of Jan. 1, Canada will continue to allow imports of e-scrap for recycling from the U.S. and other OECD countries under the current rules, not requiring additional steps like prior informed consent, according to the statement. Exports of e-scrap for recycling to the U.S. and OECD countries will also be allowed under the current practices.
Still, the country will require prior informed consent, which Canada administers through a permitting process, in several situations. Armenakis said this process will be required for e-scrap traded between Canada and non-OECD countries for recycling or traded between Canada and any country for disposal.
Canadian smelter commends government’s decision
Glencore’s copper smelter in Horne, Quebec, was among the first smelters in the world to recover copper and precious metals from e-scrap and remains the largest North American processor of e-scrap containing copper and precious metals, according to the company.
As such, any barrier to cross-border trade of e-scrap between the U.S. and Canada would be disruptive for Glencore. Sinha said the government’s move appears to balance environmental and economic interests. Canada remains a net importer of e-scrap, given its processing capacity including the Glencore smelter.
Sinha likened the Canadian decision to the Japanese government’s approach: Both countries have a thriving downstream processing infrastructure that needs more material than is generated domestically, so imports are crucial. Even before the government’s announcement, he didn’t anticipate it would come to a point where the trade of all e-scrap between the U.S. and Canada would be prohibited.
“It’s a big industry, and people rely on this on both sides of the border,” he said. “It’s not just jobs, it’s critical metals, it’s national security. I think there’s a lot here. And these two countries have always worked very well together.”
Puckett, of BAN, said one way Canada could have adopted the Basel amendments while allowing U.S. trade would be to modify a current bilateral agreement between the countries to also cover the newly controlled e-scrap materials.
“That would be an easy fix,” Puckett said. BAN advised the country’s government of that six months ago, Puckett noted.
Processors gear up for the change
As the regulatory landscape comes into clearer focus, processors that export from the U.S. are expecting some changes, but perhaps not a seismic shift in how the industry operates.
Sims Lifecycle Services, the ITAD arm of global metal recycling giant Sims Limited, typically sends precious metals like copper to downstream buyers outside of the U.S. because there are few options for domestic copper smelting. Chief Commercial Officer Sean Magann said the company has long familiarity with Basel regulations from handling a wide range of metals and shipping those materials globally.
“We always kind of default to the most conservative approach,” Magann said. “We don’t see it interrupting the business. It could, but so far we’re pretty optimistic that it’s just a matter of staying on top of things like the prior informed consent.”
Magann added the company will continue to package exports in such a way that it’s clear what the material is and how it will be processed. For materials being exported for reuse, for example, the company protects devices with styrofoam and ensures each asset is serialized and in its correct packaging.
That helps from a customs standpoint, Magann said, because it’s clear the products have been prepared for resale rather than all thrown together in a gaylord.
Even if material can still move, however, pricing could be affected, particularly if there are delays from having to go through the prior informed consent process.
“In our business, this stuff doesn’t maintain its value forever,” said Craig Boswell, president of Texas-based ITAD firm HOBI International. That becomes important when there are additional delays in shipping time.
He gave the example of transformers, copper-heavy electrical components that didn’t previously fall under Basel controls but now likely will. The buyer will pay based largely on the commodity value at time of sale, but if the new regulations delay when the buyer can actually receive those materials, prices could drop in response.
“I feel like I’m probably going to see some more conservative pricing, until they understand how quickly they can get the ultimate recovered materials to market,” Boswell said.
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