Brasília, December 9, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Representatives of around 150 countries are gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss measures related to the recycling of electronic waste. The purpose of the meeting, the sixth since the signature of the Basel Convention for the control of toxic waste movements between borders and their elimination, is to encourage industrial transformation of electronic devices - computers, cell phone, domestic appliances, car batteries - that swell waste bins, principally in the developed countries.

With around 150 million tons of hazardous wastes produced annually, the industrial world needs to accelerate its investments in less contaminating production technologies and in processes to reduce these wastes," indicated the director-general of the United Nations Environment Program, Klaus Topfer. (DAS)