The international treaty that controls the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes is the Basel Convention.
Its full name is the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. It was adopted in Basel, Switzerland, in 1989 and entered into force on 5 May 1992. The treaty arose after hazardous waste shipments increasingly crossed from wealthier industrialized countries into poorer countries with weaker disposal safeguards.
The convention uses a prior informed consent system: exporting countries must notify affected governments, and shipments generally require consent from importing and transit countries. It also promotes minimizing waste generation and managing waste as close as possible to its source.
A common mix-up is with the Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Montreal agreements. Stockholm addresses persistent organic pollutants, Rotterdam covers trade in certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides, and Montreal protects the ozone layer. The Basel Convention also covers some electronic and plastic waste, but radioactive waste governed by other international systems is outside its scope.