Global trade in plastic waste is to become “… more transparent and better regulated …” according to a May 10, 2019 news release issued by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. It reports that the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal has been amended to “… include plastic waste in a legally-binding framework …”. A new Partnership on Plastic Waste was also established.
The United States is not a party to the Basel Convention. According to a May 10, 2019 Bureau of International Recycling article published in Recycling Magazine the amendments categorize non-hazardous plastic waste that is not recyclable or is difficult to recycle as a waste requiring special consideration, listing it in Annex II of the Basel Convention.