Risk Management and Hazardous Waste: Implementation and the Dialectics of Credibility

The proper management of hazardous wastes has become a major environmental and economic problem. Local opposition to siting of new treatment and disposal facilities has amplified international movements of wastes between different regulatory regimes. Inconsistent national regimes allow loopholes whose exploitation amplifies public concern and local opposition. Furthermore, inadequate understanding of public attitudes and political responses allows unpredictability to undermine industrial confidence and decision making. This IIASA book contributes original fieldwork from six countries and conceptual analysis aimed at improving understanding and the practical management of hazardous waste problems. It links the different forms of technical knowledge used in regulation with their institutional decision making context, and analyses the key question of public credibility in a systematic and novel way