Northern Ireland Hazardous Waste Forum

The Hazardous Waste Forum (HWF) was first established in June 2003, in response to concerns expressed in the regional Waste Management Plans about the significant impacts in Northern Ireland 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 reduced disposal capacity within Northern Ireland. Changes in hazardous Waste controls were introduced in July 2005.

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. View Terms of Reference(.PDF 18Kb).

The Forum published its Action Plan in June 2004, Northern Ireland Hazardous Waste Forum Action Plan(.PDF 754.83Kb), which set out the recommended actions under four main headings, relating to the regulatory system, communication and awareness raising, encouraging the '4Rs' (reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery) and 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, in which each of the broad actions identified was translated into specific actions, with assigned responsibilities, outputs and milestones. The Forum monitored progress against these Implementation Plans.

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

Final Copy of the Implementation Plan July 2006(.PDF 137Kb)

One particular recommendation in the Action Plan was that the Department of Environment should prepare a 'Statement of Facility Needs' 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 required. This Statement Of Facility Needs(.PDF 285Kb) was published in October 2005, accompanied by a Statement Of Facility Needs - Technical Report(.PDF 927Kb). The recommendations in this statement have since been endorsed by both the revised Waste Management Strategy 2006 - 2020(.PDF 2Mb) and by the revised regional Waste Management Plans (completed 2007).

View the plans for:

• arc21(.PDF 197Kb)
• Southern Waste Management Partnership(.PDF 8.9Mb)
• North West Region Waste Management Group(.PDF 7.32Mb)

The Forum has achieved much progress since its inception. At the 17th meeting in December 2006, it was agreeed that the HWF is still serving a useful purpose, but that both its terms of reference and the Action Plan need to be revisited. For its 18th meeting in June 2007 (the HWF's 4th anniversary) two reports were prepared, reviewing progress against the six objectives in the Terms of Reference; and progress against the Action Plan.

See: Meetings held.