Basel Action Network

Type	Environmental justice, human rights
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington, United States
Leader	Richard Gutierrez, Jim Puckett
Website	Official website

The Basel Action Network (BAN) is a charitable non-governmental organization working to combat the export of toxic waste from technology and other products from industrialized societies to developing countries. BAN is based in Seattle, Washington, United States, with a partner office in the Philippines. BAN is named after the Basel Convention, a United Nations treaty designed to control and prevent the dumping of toxic wastes, particularly on developing countries. BAN serves as a and promoter of the Basel Convention and its decisions.

BAN currently runs four campaigns focusing on decreasing the amount of toxins entering the environment and protecting underdeveloped countries from serving as a toxic dump of the developed countries of the world. These include:

BAN's e-Stewards Electronics Stewardship campaign seeks to prevent toxic trade in hazardous electronic waste and includes a certification program for responsible electronics recycling known as the e-Stewards Initiative. It is available to electronics recyclers after they prove to have environmentally and socially responsible recycling techniques following audits conducted by accredited certifying bodies. Recyclers can become e-Steward certified after proving that they follow all national and international laws concerning electronic waste and its proper disposal, which includes the ban of to exporting, land dumping, incineration, and use of prison labor. When the e-Stewards initiative was initially started with the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, it was called "The Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship". In the beginning, the initiative verified a recycler's participation through "desk" and paper audits only. The e-Stewards certification, however, has been updated and requires compliance verification by a third party auditor.

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