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Draft Technical Guidelines on the Environmentally Sound Management of Mercury Wastes

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Draft Technical Guidelines on the Environmentally Sound Management of Mercury Wastes BC UNEP/CHW.9/INF/25/Add.1 Distr.: General 16 April 2008 English only Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal Ninth meeting Bali, 23–27 June 2008 Item 7 (h) of the provisional agenda∗ Implementation of the decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its eighth meeting: technical matters Draft technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of mercury wastes Comments received from the Basel Action Network (BAN) Note by the Secretariat Attached are comments received from the Basel Action Network (BAN), a non-governmental organization on the draft technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of mercury wastes, for consideration by the meeting. These comments have not been formally edited by the Secretariat and are presented as received. ∗ UNEP/CHW.9/1. 230408 For reasons of economy, this document is printed in a limited number. Delegates are kindly requested to bring their copies to meetings and not to request additional copies. UNEP/CHW.9/INF/25/Add.1 BAN AP Comments on the 3rd Draft of the Technical Guidelines for Mercury Wastes Submitted by the Basel Action Network, Asia-Pacific 15 February 2008 I. General Comments [Provided in this section are comments co-developed and supported by the Zero Mercury Working Group.1] We are grateful that the Secretariat has undertaken this important task on the issue of mercury wastes, and for opening the floor for comments on the third draft of the Technical Guidelines on Mercury Wastes (3rd Draft). Upon review, the 3rd Draft is still very much a work in progress and falls short in several crucial areas. First, certain sections in the 3rd Draft need to be balanced. For instance, some of the sections glowingly present data on particular technologies without explaining the disadvantages, obstacles, or issues raised in the use of such technologies. Since the Basel Guidelines will be used by Parties as a tool in arriving at solutions, it is only proper that the Guidelines provide, the Parties who are the ultimate users of the Guideline, complete and unbiased information, particularly on the issue of certain types of technology. Second, the drafters raise recommendations that still need to be agreed on by Parties. Moreover, some sections contain statements that editorialize specific issues, when the goal of the Guidelines is to present objective information to Parties. Third, the draft is too ambitious in that it attempts to cover virtually all aspects of the mercury issue, and cannot possibly accomplish this well given space and resource limitations. Consequently, we urge that the drafters focus on providing critical detail in the areas most relevant to Basel where gaps in current guidance currently exist, and in other areas instead simply reference the detailed work of other organizations rather than duplicating their efforts in a less than satisfactory manner. For example, chapter 7 attempts to describe the various products and processes using mercury and provide guidance on non-mercury alternatives or techniques to minimize mercury consumption. Given the variety of products and processes, and the inherent space limitations in this document, it is inevitable the discussion in this draft will be inadequate. The ASM area alone would require several chapters to be truly helpful to the reader. We note that UNEP will be preparing a report on mercury products and the availability of alternatives for the upcoming Governing Council meeting next year. We further note UNIDO is preparing detailed BMPs for the ASM sector on reducing mercury use. Basel should emphasize the need to phase-out mercury use, and then reference these organizations and their documents in the draft, rather than providing incomplete text. Similarly, in Chapter 10, the draft purports to discuss various options for the long-term sequestration from commerce of liquid mercury. This is another area where the Quicksilver Caucus and the U.S. Department of Defense have devoted considerable efforts and produced lengthy documents. This draft should simply refer the reader to these organizations and documents, rather than attempting to cover this area in any depth. 1 The Zero Mercury Working Group is an international coalition of non-profit environmental and public health groups whose aim is to reach “‘Zero’ emissions, demand and supply of mercury, from all sources we can control, in view of reducing to a minimum, mercury in the environment at EU level and globally.” The global coalition has been operating since 2005 and was formally launched on 7 April 2006. For more information about the group visit: http://www.zeromercury.org/index.htm 2 UNEP/CHW.9/INF/25/Add.1 We believe there are likely other parts of the Guidance where the draft merely attempts to duplicate information already available. We urge Basel to scrutinize the document more carefully, focus its efforts on where it is providing real value added, and for the remaining areas, articulate the principle policy directions and refer the reader to other sources for more detail. Lastly, a big portion of the 3rd Draft is quite challenging to read because the ideas are not clearly and accurately written. Further, spelling, sentence structure, and word usage errors contribute to the overall difficulty. In the following section, we will elaborate on most of the general comments made, provide suggestions, and primarily focus on substantive and accuracy issues, not dwelling too much on spelling or typographical errors. II. Specific Comments Page 10; 1.1 Background BAN AP Comment: In paragraph 1, stating that mercury and methylmercuy were trigger chemicals that brought upon damage to human health and the environment in the areas mentioned, is understating the fact that these were in fact the main toxins involved in these tragic incidents. It is suggested that the sentence accurately reflect this fact, as in the suggested text in track changes below. 1. Mercury is a chemical element and exists as liquid at room temperature and pressure. Mercury is widely used in products, such as thermometers, barometers, fluorescent lamps, etc and in industrial processes, such as chlor-alkali production, vinyl-chloride-monomer (VCM) production, acetaldehyde production, etc, because of its unique characteristics. However, mercury and methylmercury (one of the organometallic forms) triggered were the toxins involved in the tragic incidents which caused the deadly damage to human health and the environment in Minamata City, Japan (1950-60’s), in many rural areas, Iraq (1950’s and 1972) and Sihanouk Ville, Cambodia (1998) (Amin-Zaki 1978; Ministry of the Environment 2002; NIMD 1999). BAN AP Comment: Paragraphs 3, 4, 5, and 6 raise valid points about mercury, but at times makes sweeping generalizations that appear to overstate some facts, e.g. that fluorescent lights are important products for society; unnecessarily making an awkward argument for the need for mercury waste control. The following changes are suggested to help the potential readers ease into the points being raised for the need of establishing these technical guidelines without overstating facts and putting into context the importance of fluorescent lights and similar products. 3. There is a growing global trend to phase out Although mercury-containing products and industrial mercury uses are tend to be phased out because of the acknowledgement issue of mercury as a global pollutant. As efforts to phase out mercury-containing products and industrial mercury uses continue, ensuing mercury wastes arising from these phase outs will become a critical issue for a majority of nations. 4. Adding to the complexity of the mercury waste issue, and are known as one of the anthropogenic sources of mercury emission as mercury waste, the use of some of mercury-containing products areare expected to rise in the coming years, important products for human society, such as, fluorescent lamps (a replacement of incandescent lamps as a strategy for low carbon society), back-light for liquid crystal displays (high demand of information technology), etc. 5. In the instance of fluorescent lamps,For example, taking into consideration climate change, as one of the CO2 reduction programmes, is the replacement programme of fluorescent lamps to high frequency (Hf) fluorescent lamps (35% higher frequency and 1.5 longer life than normal types). This programme are is being implemented in several countries, particularly in the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (Team -6% 3 UNEP/CHW.9/INF/25/Add.1 Committee & Ministry of the Environment 2007). In this programme,. aA large number of used fluorescent lamps will become waste at the end of its product life cycle and will become generate mercury waste. It is critical for Waste waste fluorescent lamps should to be treated in an on the environmentally sound management (ESM)ner without any breakage. It is therefore important toA comprehensiveely plan for the collection, introduction of mercury free alternatives or a replacement programme, and recycling/disposal plans would be necessary. 6. In order to reduce risk of mercury pollution to human health and the environment as well as the environmentally sound use of mercury-containing products, it is necessary to consider, introduce and fully implement the environmentally sound management (ESM) of mercury waste. This Technical Guidelines on the Environmentally Sound Management of Mercury Waste is aimed at assisting Basel Parties guides thin achieving e ESM of environmentally unsound management of memercury waste to ESM. Page 10; 1.2 Purpose BAN AP Comment: The suggestions in track changes below are for consistency in the paragraph. Since the 3rd Draft covers mercury wastes only, this should be consistently reflected. Also, since the 3rd Draft only elaborates on international instruments this should be accurately stated as well. 8. The present technical guidelines provide guidance for ESM of mercury waste and give comprehensive information about mercury waste, including the chemistry and toxicology of mercury, source of mercury and mercury waste, adverse effects to human health and the environment caused by the environmentally unsound management of mercury waste.
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