London Convention

The London Convention of 1972 is the global treaty to prevent marine pollution by the deliberate dumping of wastes and other matter at sea. It worked from a permitted ‘black and grey list’ approach. The 1996 London Protocol modernized it with a reverse-list (precautionary) approach: dumping is banned except for a short list of assessed materials such as dredged spoil, and incineration at sea and waste export for dumping are prohibited.