Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI) announced the return of Dr. Katharina Kummer Peiry to SERI’s board of directors. During her five year tenure as head of the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, hosted by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), she championed the concept of waste as a valuable resource. Her efforts in this area contributed to the inclusion of this concept in the Basel Convention’s 10-year Strategic Framework, and in the Cartagena Declaration on the Prevention, Minimization and Recovery of Hazardous Wastes.
She continues to lend her expertise and forward thinking in international law and policy related to waste management and the circular economy through her consulting firm, Kummer EcoConsult, where she advises and supports both public and private sector entities.
While most of her career has focused on environmental policy, Dr. Kummer Peiry also served at the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2015-2017, where she was Senior Legal Advisor with the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Among her most notable accomplishments at WHO include her work on the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, and the establishment of the Panel of Experts on the Protocol to advise countries on the complex mechanisms they must establish to be able to implement the Protocol. Kummer Peiry notes that combatting illegal trade in tobacco products poses many of the same challenges as combatting illegal traffic in e-waste.
Published in the April 2018 Edition