BAN Defines Repair as "disposal"

To summarize BAN's position, repair equals disposal.

Here is a presentation made by Jim Puckett in Accra in December 2009.  See Page 28.

In this presentation and elsewhere, BAN makes a case against export for reuse and repair.  This is a case BAN has presented and LOST with UNCTAD, EPA, ISRI, and the Basel Secratariat itself!   So BAN is trying to get nations to DEFINE repairable and working units to BE "WASTE". Under the Basel Convention, such a definition could make Annex IX (definition of LEGAL trade) impossible with the USA (as a non-signatory).

The Basel Convention is CRYSTAL CLEAR that export for repair and refurbishment is legal if no toxic parts are DISPOSED.  We do need to make sure that replaced parts are recycled. WR3A considers proof of proper recycling of residue to be an important component in "fair trade".

But BAN is trying to get nations to define repair itself as "disposal", which would make the Basel Convention language circular (export for repair is legal unless something winds up disposed - but export for repair IS disposal - so export for repair is NOT legal).

BAN is justifying this with FALSE data and misleading photos.  In this presentation, they say 80% of exports are for disposal, when independent research shows 15% is not repaired.  BAN has NO DATA to support their contention of 80% waste.  It is completely fabricated... or perhaps is supported only by their own definition that repairable and working = waste.

Peace Corps volunteers, college grads, environmentalists, digital divide organizations should all stand up to this Ayatollah of E-Waste!  Use of internet is growing 10 times faster in countries with 1/10th of the USA's gross domestic product.   They cannot afford IPADs.  Stop the madness!  Fair Trade is the best solution.  Prohibition is counter productive.