The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a revision of the National Hazardous Waste Management Plan to cover the years 2014 to 2020. This third Plan is a revision of the second Plan and will cover a period of six years from the date of publication (2014 – 2020).
The objectives of the revised Plan are:
- To prevent and reduce the generation of hazardous waste by industry and society generally;
- To maximise the collection of hazardous waste with a view to reducing the environmental and health impacts of any unregulated waste;
- To strive for increased self-sufficiency in the management of hazardous waste and to minimise hazardous waste export;
- To minimise the environmental, health, social and economic impacts of hazardous waste generation and management.
This revised Plan sets out the priority actions that should be undertaken within the lifetime of the Plan in relation to: the prevention of hazardous waste; improved collection rates for certain categories of hazardous waste; steps that are required to improve Ireland’s self-sufficiency in hazardous waste management and the continued identification and regulation of legacy issues (e.g. identification, risk assessment and regularisation of historic unregulated waste disposal sites).