Basel Convention E-Waste Rules: 5 Things Businesses Need to Know

The Basel Convention, provides a global framework for controlling the cross-border movement of hazardous and other wastes. Changes to the Convention's e-waste controls took effect on 1st January 2025, significantly changing how international movements of electrical and electronic waste are management.

The amendments expanded controls to cover hazardous and non-hazardous e-waste, making prior informed consent (PIC) an important consideration for international e-waste movements between Basel Party countries.

For organizations operating across multiple jurisdictions, understanding how equipment is classified, processed and moved across borders is becoming increasingly important for managing compliance risk. 

This blog explains the five key things you need to know about recent amendments to the Basel Convention.

#1: Three Key Changes to E-Waste Regulations Effective January 2025

#2: What the First Year Has Taught the Industry 

#3: Global ITAD Programs Need to Consider Compliance from the Outset

#4: AI and Data Center Growth Add a New Dimension

#5: Maximizing Compliance with Local Recycling Facilities

1. Three Key Changes to E-Waste Regulations Effective January 2025

In January 2025, new regulations under the Basel Convention will take effect, specifically targeting e-waste. These updates stem from the E-waste Amendment adopted at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in June 2022. The amendments refine definitions, expand the scope of hazardous waste, and introduce stricter controls on the transboundary movement of e-waste.

For businesses managing technology across borders, there are three important changes to understand:

The practical impact is greater control over how e-waste is classified and moved internationally. Organisations therefore need better visibility over what happens to retired technology, including its classification, destination, downstream processing and any applicable cross-border requirements.

2. What the First Year has Taught the Industry

Since the amendments took effect, the industry has moved from preparing for regulatory change to managing it in practice. SK Tes' recent article in Recycling Today examines the experience of the first year, including increased documentation and permitting requirements, longer lead times, greater scrutiny of waste classification and differences in how requirements are interpreted across jurisdictions. 

The experience points to an important lesson for global businesses - e-waste compliance cannot be treated as an administrative step at the end of the asset lifecycle. Planning, classification, documentation and downstream movements increasingly need to be considered earlier. 

Read: One Year In, How Basel's New E-Waste Rules are Reshaping Global Electronics Recycling in Recycling Today.

3. Global ITAD Programs Need to Consider Compliance from the Outset

For organizations managing IT assets across multiple countries, compliance considerations increasingly form part of the wider IT asset disposition (ITAD) strategy.  The first year of implementation has highlighted the importance of planning, material information, tracking, documentation, and selecting appropriate downstream routes. SK Tes' experience has also shown that the differences between national approaches can affect established international material flows.

A global ITAD program should therefore consider regulatory requirements alongside data security, reuse, value recovery, and responsible recycling. For a more detailed look at this regulatory landscape, download our "From Risk to Resource: Navigating Safely Through E-Waste Regulations Whitepaper". It explores e-waste legislations, the Basel Convention, transboundary movements, and the challenges business face when managing e-waste internationally. 

Navigate Safely Through E-waste Regulations [Guide]

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4. AI and Data Center Growth Add a New Dimension

The regulatory landscape isn't the only thing changing. The infrastructure entering the technology lifecycle is changing too. Rapid investment in AI and data center infrastructure raised an important long-term questions - What happens to this equipment when it is upgraded, redeployed or reaches the end of life?

Recent research from the Basel Action Network examines this emerging AI-related e-waste challenge and highlights why organizations need to consider the lifecycle implications of today's infrastructure investment. For organizations investing in AI infrastructure, decisions around future reuse, asset recovery, recycling, and cross-border movements should therefore be considered as part of lifecycle planning, rather than only when equipment reaches the point of retirement. 

Explore how SK Tes helps organizations manage e-waste recycling and compliance. 

5. Why E-Waste Compliance Requires a Global and Local Approach

E-waste regulation operates across international, regional and national frameworks, making compliance particularly complex for organizations managing technology across multiple countries. The Basel Convention provides an international framework, but organizations also need to understand the requirements that apply in individual jurisdictions. Classification, documentation, permitted movements and downstream processing can all influence how retired equipment and materials are managed.

This is where global oversight combined with local expertise becomes particularly important. SK Tes helps organizations navigate global e-waste requirements while drawing on local knowledge to understand applicable regulations, processing requirements, and available downstream routes. With more than 30 R2-certified facilities worldwide, SK Tes can also process more equipment within its own global network, supporting greater visibility and control over where assets and materials are managed. This combination of global reach and local capability helps organizations manage compliance across multiple markets while reducing reliance on complex cross-border movements.

Our "From Risk to Resource: Navigating Safely Through E-Waste Regulations" whitepaper explores this challenge in more detail, including the Basel Convention, transboundary movements and the complexity created by different regulatory regimes. Effective compliance therefore requires more than knowledge of a single regulation. It requires the combination of global regulatory understanding, local expertise, traceability and responsible downstream management.

Building Compliance into the Technology Lifecycle

For global organizations e-waste compliance needs to be considered throughout the technology lifecycle, not only when equipment reaches end of life. SK Tes combines global technology lifecycle capabilities with local expertise to help organizations navigate complex e-waste requirements, manage retired technology responsibly and maintain visibility acrosstheir downstream process. 

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