An international meeting on waste management is due to open in Bali, Indonesia, to highlight the risks of hazardous waste.

Ministers from nearly 170 countries will be considering setting up a new body on electronic and computer waste.

The talks come as Greenpeace has been campaigning against the flow of US computer waste to China.

The group says unprotected workers in China melt circuit boards to retrieve precious metals, risking their health.

China has Taiwanese diplomats in Beijing ...
Taiwanese diplomats head to Beijing ...
Greenpeace challenges Spanish tuna ship ...
Indonesia jails leaders of 'terrorist' JI ... ratified the UN Basel Convention, which controls the transboundary movements of hazardous waste.

But Greenpeace says a large volume of shipping traffic into southern China - often via Hong Kong - makes smuggling into the country easy.

Hong Kong has laws against e-waste, but fails to include circuit boards in its definition, the BBC's Vaudine England says.

The US has not ratified the convention.

Also on the agenda in Bali are reports about the full range of hazardous wastes, from ship-breaking to mercury poisoning.

(BBC)

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