The first step in the environment-friendly planning and disposal of special wastes is to identify the waste materials arising at their generation point and to classify these materials on the basis of a schedule of waste types.

Waste management planning is limited by a number of secondary conditions which restrict the scope for action (listed in 2.2). These factors create conflicts in the disposal of special waste.

The most important requirements for (special) waste disposal, with a view to achieving minimal environmental pollution, can be summed up as follows:

1. Minimisation of waste through the use of production processes and imports which generate as little environmental pollution as possible,
2. Identification of waste at the waste production point,
3. Examination of these waste materials with a view to possible reuse and recycling,
4. Collection systems appropriate to the material properties and, where applicable, temporary storage of the materials recovered,
5. Transport of the waste materials to be disposed of or recycled by specially designed and officially approved vehicles; transportation by qualified and reliable drivers; establishment of the appropriate mode of transport and the precise transport routes,
6. Disposal of waste materials after examining the potential for recycling in suitable plants which have been constructed within a regional waste management scheme and have been tested for environmental acceptability. One should consider here:

• maintenance of the state of the art for maximum reduction of the environmental pollution (emissions) associated with the plants, expansions of such plants and the resultant atmospheric immissions;

• emphasis on reuse and recycling of materials;

• heat generation, where the waste materials are suitable for this;

• matching of disposal capacities to the types and quantities of special waste generated;

7. Development of regional markets for recycled products,
8. Planning and implementation of economic measures in the sphere of waste management,
9. Encouragement to develop and implement plans to deal with commercial and industrial waste,
10. Establishment of authorities for effective planning and monitoring of the necessary measures and their actual implementation,
11. Creation of a legal framework for waste management planning and policy.

In assessing hazards, it is first necessary to trace the hazard sources. As described above, specific hazards occur depending on

• the waste materials and their properties,

• the transport routes and modes of transport chosen against the background of the (traffic) situation within the disposal area,
• the disposal plants available and their environmental protection facilities,
• the application of regulations under health and safety law.

Besides these different types of objective hazards, other sources of hazard must be borne in mind when dealing with these materials. That is to say, the factors of

• human error,
• technical faults,
• extraneous factors (earthquake, flood etc.)

must be included in the hazard model (preparation of incident plans with contingency measures, worst-case scenarios etc.).

Since there are so many aspects to take into account, putting all these measures into practice is no easy matter. Compatible strategy elements must be therefore planned and implemented on a long-term horizon. As waste is produced as an end product of economic processes, a waste management policy will in turn have many different effects on these economic processes. This is all the more true of special waste because of its immediate proximity to the production area. Annex 9 summarises the main elements of this environmental field.