Northern Ireland Hazardous Waste Forum

The Hazardous Waste Forum is a stakeholder group comprising representatives from Central and Local Government, Waste Producers, the Waste Management Industry and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Its task is to advise Government on the way forward for safe hazardous waste reduction, recovery and management, and to identify the peferred hazardous waste solutions for both the short and longer term. You can view the Terms of Reference (.PDF 18Kb).

The Hazardous Waste Forum (HWF) was first set up in June 2003. This was in response to concerns expressed in the regional Waste Management Plans about the impacts of the forthcoming legislative changes, driven by a series of Euorpean Directives.

A ban on the co-disposal of hazardous wastes in municipal waste landfills was introduced in July 2004, which significantly cut down the disposal capacity within Northern Ireland. Changes in hazardous Waste controls were introduced in July 2005.

The Forum published its Action Plan (.PDF 755Kb) in June 2004. This set out the recommended actions under four main headings:

1. about the regulatory system
2. communication and awareness raising
3. encouraging the '4Rs' (reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery)
4. ensuring provision of the necessary facilities for environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes

The overall Action Plan was then turned into a series of annual Implementation Plans. Each of the broad actions identified were translated into specific actions with assigned responsibilities, outputs and milestones. The Forum monitored progress against these Implementation Plans. Have a look at:

• Final Copy of the Implementation Plan June 2004 to December 2005 (.PDF 63Kb)
• Final Copy of the Implementation Plan July 2006 (.PDF 137Kb)

One recommendation in the Action Plan was that the Department of Environment should prepare a Statement Of Facility Needs (.PDF 285Kb) for management of Northern Ireland's hazardous wastes, to cover not only what facilities should be provided within Northern Ireland, but also the potential for all-island collaboration and where export to Great Britain was likely to be needed.

This Statement Of Facility Needs was published in October 2005, accompanied by a Technical Report (.PDF 927Kb). The recommendations in this statement have since been endorsed by both the revised Waste Management Strategy 2006 to 2020 (.PDF 2.06Mb) and by the revised regional Waste Management Plans. This was completed in 2007.

Further reading can be found in the following documents:

• arc21 (.PDF 197Kb)
• North West Region Waste Management Group (.PDF 7.32Mb)

You can also see other presentations, agendas and reports on the Meetings held page.