Basel Convention Amendment to Annex IV

COP President Anita Sowińska uses the gavel to signal the adoption of amendment to Annex IV

The seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (COP-17, 28 April–9 May 2025) adopted by decision BC-17/15 an amendment to Annex IV to the Convention entirely replacing that annex, which reads as follows:

  
  
  

ANNEX IV

    
        


DISPOSAL OPERATIONS

This Annex encompasses all such operations with respect to substances or objects legally defined as or considered to be wastes.

This Annex also covers, in both sections A and B, disposal operations that occur prior to submission to any of the operations in the respective section.

This Annex covers all disposal operations, regardless of their legal status and regardless of whether they are environmentally sound.

The use of “e.g.” in Annex IV indicates that any list of examples is non-exhaustive.

A. Operations which do not lead to the possibility of resource recovery, recycling or reclamation

Operations in section A are not a recovery, recycling or reclamation operation even where the operation has as a secondary consequence the reclamation of substances or energy.

D1

Deposit into or onto land, (e.g. landfill, non-engineered landfill, dumpsites) other than by any operations D2 to D5, or D12

D2

Treatment through interaction with land other than covered by R10 in Section B (e.g. biodegradation of liquids or sludges in soil)

D3

Deep injection (e.g. injection into wells, salt domes of naturally occurring repositories)

D4

Surface impoundment (e.g. placement of liquids or sludge into pits, basins, ponds, tailings dams, lagoons)

D5

Deposit in an engineered landfill isolated from the environment (e.g. placement into lined discrete cells which are capped and isolated from one another)

D6

Release into a water body except seas/oceans

D7

Release into seas/oceans including sea-bed insertion

D8

Biological treatment not specified elsewhere in section A, prior to submission to any of the operations in Section A (e.g. aerobic or anaerobic processes such as activated sludge treatment, aerated lagoons and stabilization ponds)

D9

Manual treatment, physical/mechanical treatment (e.g. separation, dismantling, size reduction, evaporation, drying, autoclaving, irradiation), physical/chemical treatment (e.g. solvent extraction), chemical treatment (e.g. neutralization, chemical precipitation, oxidation, reduction) or immobilization (e.g. stabilization, solidification, encapsulation) not specified elsewhere in section A prior to submission to any of the operations in section A

D10

Thermal treatment on land not covered by an operation in Section B

D11

Thermal treatment at sea not covered by an operation in Section B

D12

Permanent storage (e.g. emplacement of containers in a mine)

D13

Blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations in Section A

D14

Repackaging prior to submission to any of the operations in Section A

D15

Temporary storage prior to submission to any of the operations in section A

B. Recovery, recycling or reclamation operations

Section B encompasses all such operations with respect to materials legally defined as or considered to be hazardous wastes and other wastes under this Convention and which otherwise would have been destined for operations included in Section A.

R1

Use as a fuel (other than in direct incineration) or other means to generate energy

R2

Solvent reclamation/regeneration

R3

Recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents

R4

Recycling or reclamation of metals and metal compounds (e.g. pyrometallurgy, smelting, hydrometallurgy, physical/mechanical treatment)

R5

Recycling or reclamation of inorganic materials other than covered by R4

R6

Regeneration of acids or bases

R7

Recovery of components used for pollution abatement

R8

Recovery of components from catalysts 

R9

Recycling or re-refining of used oil (e.g. mineral oil, hydrocarbons-based oils)

R10

Treatment through interaction with land other than in D2 in Section A resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement

R11

Uses of residual materials obtained from any of the operations numbered R1–R10

R12

Treatment prior to submission to any of the operations numbered R1–R11 (e.g. biological treatment, chemical treatment, physical/chemical treatment, physical/mechanical treatment, blending, mixing)

R13

Temporary storage prior to submission to any of the operations in Section B

R14

Repackaging prior to submission to any of the operations in Section B
   

The amendment, which was prepared by the Expert Working Group on the review of Annexes is, pursuant to decision BC-17/16, intended to:

  1. Improve/update the description of disposal operations in Annex IV;
  2. Improve environmental controls by including in Annex IV additional disposal operations that occur in practice or could occur in practice; or
  3. Clarify the descriptions in Annex IV to address conflicts and overlaps.

The amendment to Annex IV adds a general introduction for Annex IV, maintains the two sections of Annex IV (sections A and B) with captions and introductions for each section, and includes a new operation.

The amendment to Annex IV becomes effective on 1 January 2030.

In its decision BC-17/16, the Conference of the Parties agreed on some work to be undertaken in follow up to the adoption of the amendment.