Improving hazardous waste management programmes to meet health and environment norms

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Agenda 21 recommends that governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the cooperation of the UN and other organizations, should establish or strengthen programmes for the environmentally sound management of hazardous waste in accordance with appropriate health and environmental standards, and extend surveillance systems to identify adverse effects on the population and the environment of exposure to hazardous waste.