Guidance on waste prevention and minimization

Resource type
Guidance
Source
Basel convention
Geographic area
Global

The guidance document on waste prevention and minimization aims to assist parties to the Basel Convention in developing and implementing efficient strategies to minimize and prevent the generation of hazardous and other wastes. 

To promote the implementation of the Cartagena Declaration, the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties mandated the expert working group on environmentally sound management to develop guidance on waste prevention and minimization. Following this mandate, the expert working group initiated the development of a guidance document on waste prevention and minimization at its fourth meeting, taking into account the practical manual on waste prevention developed by the same group as part of a set of five practical manuals. 

The guidance document covers a range of strategies to prevent and minimize the generation of hazardous and other wastes, including decoupling waste generation from economic growth, improving material and resource efficiency, shifting towards a circular economy, developing new business models to create incentives for recovery, promoting behavioral change amongst consumers and using alternative technologies.