Hazardous waste management

Report summary

New Zealand's lack of effective and consistent controls on hazardous waste creates a major risk to the environment and has the potential to affect our 'clean green' image. For over a decade successive Governments have failed to address even the fundamental issues such as a legal definition of 'hazardous waste', which means that as a nation we know little about the quantities of hazardous waste we produce or the risks to the environment as we try and dispose of them.

 

Commissioner's preface

New Zealand cannot be proud of its reputation in the area of hazardous waste management. The consistent lack of action over a number of years indicated some fundamental flaws in New Zealand authorities' perceptions of the risks and hence willingness to act. The potential risk of poor environmental management to our international reputation and our clean green image appeared to be high.

 

Executive summary

The management of hazardous waste in New Zealand has been carried out for many years without any overall strategy or consistency. A number of reports published over the last 8 to 10 years have highlighted deficiencies in the system and failure by successive governments to effectively tackle issues such as:

  • the lack of data on hazardous wastes and their effects on the environment
  • inadequate legislative provisions including the lack of a definition of 'hazardous waste'
  • inconsistent policies among local authorities
  • the lack of incentives to reduce generation.

Concerns have been expressed by some in the waste treatment industry and local authorities. It was a combination of these concerns and the history of poor management of hazardous waste in New Zealand which prompted this report.

The Minister for the Environment announced in September 1997 that funding had been allocated to the development of a 3-year hazardous waste programme to improve the management of hazardous waste. Other related commitments include the Government's 1992 policy on waste management, its 1996 Coalition Agreement, and the Environment 2010 Strategy.

The purpose of this report is to establish a process whereby progress on improving the management of hazardous waste can be monitored and the outcome evaluated over the next 3 to 4 years.

This report highlights some of the critical issues arising from various other reports on hazardous waste. The Government's intention to release a discussion paper later this year on hazardous waste management reforms will be an opportunity for a wider range of views to be expressed on changes needed. 

Findings & recommendations

Generally, the management of hazardous waste in New Zealand has been carried out in a piecemeal fashion. The Government is embarking on a major programme to improve the management of hazardous wastes.

The programme needs to have at least a two-pronged approach in which minimising both the generation of hazardous waste (waste reduction) and the effects on the environment and public health of its disposal (risk reduction) are the key objectives.

The current system of collecting data, where it occurs at local government level, is limited to identifying quantities of hazardous waste generated or disposed of. There is no evidence of the risks having been assessed, or that waste management decisions are based on risk reduction.

Recommendations

The first recommendation in this report establishes an audit process to measure the progress and assess the effectiveness of the Government's hazardous waste programme.

Other recommendations relate to issues the Minister for the Environment should consider when developing the discussion paper and subsequent proposals on hazardous waste management reforms:

Objectives, policies, legislation

Guidelines for

Information