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by Camila Reed, Reuters

At the 10th anniversary meeting of the convention in Basel, Switzerland, 125 governments adopted a declaration on the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes.

Ministers set out the main focus areas which included the need for greater cooperation with industry and other groups, the active promotion and use of cleaner technologies, the prevention and monitoring of illegal traffic and a further reduction of trans-boundary movements of hazardous and other wastes.

Ross Bartley, technical and environment director of the BIR international recycling federation, said he was satisfied with many elements of the ministerial declaration. Metal recyclers are restricted by the Basel rules, which include a ban on exporting waste from OECD to non-OECD countries, as many secondary raw materials are classed as hazardous waste.

"For the last 10 years industry has been threatened by the Basel Convention and some metal recycling industries in non-OECD countries have been badly hurt by its application," Bartley said.

"The fact that ministers have now recognised the need to engage industry's expertise and technology together with market forces to achieve environmentally sound management can be considered a major step forward," he said.

The BIR represents over 53 countries and 35 trade organisations and acts on behalf of at least 7,000 recycling and trading companies worldwide. The international recycling industry generates over $150 billion in turnover each year and employs more than 1.5 million poeple globally, handling over 600 million tonnes a year of raw materials, the BIR said.

Pierre Portas, Basel's technical director, told Reuters by telephone from Switzerland that there had been an evolution to partnership with industry. Hilary Stone, a laywer and lecturer in environmental law at Britain's Brunel University, said it was a very fine balancing act between being seen to bend to industry's concerns and not going too far in industry's direction.