Problem overview:

     Awareness and visions: Proper treatment and disposal of toxic waste is a crucial matter. Different factors and circumstances should be incorporated into the decision making process of how toxic waste should be treated and disposed.

     Policies and measures: There are many legal alternatives for the disposal of toxic waste. Here is the story on how the Singaporean government policy managed to create business interest in the area of waste treatment.

Background:

     Determining the best alternative for toxic waste management

     Singapores policies for toxic waste management: Since 1986, the Ministry of the Environment (ENV) in Singapore has put in place comprehensive legislation and action programmes to control the generation, collection, transportation, treatment / recycling and disposal of toxic wastes.

     Management of toxic waste house treatment or treatment plants: These ensure that industries which generate toxic wastes either set up their own in-house treatment/recycling facilities to treat/recycle their toxic wastes or engage a licensed toxic waste collector to collect, treat/recycle and dispose of such wastes.

     Waste management trend shift towards using specialized services: The trend in the 1980s showed that major generators of toxic wastes, such as the MNCs preferred to set up their own toxic waste treatment facilities to treat and disposed of their toxic wastes. This trend, however, changed in the 1990s, with more major generators of toxic wastes preferring to send their toxic wastes to approved toxic waste treatment/recycling facilities for treatment/recycling and disposal.

     Setting up specialized private waste collecting and management companies: This has in turned generated interests among the industries in the private sector to invest in the setting up and operations of specialised toxic waste treatment/recycling and disposal plants. There are currently over 100 companies, which are licensed to collect such wastes.

     Reasons against setting specialized waste treatment plants: In the early 1990s, ENV launched an effort to encourage the private sector to set up a centralised and integrated toxic waste treatment plant in Singapore. Several local and foreign consortiums carried out their studies and decided against investing in such a plant in Singapore for the following reasons:

1. Adequate supply of domestic facilities: They felt that the existing numbers of established specialised toxic waste treatment plants have already captured the entire market;
   
   
2. Non-importation of toxic waste that requires disposal: Singapore does not allow the import of toxic wastes destined for final destruction and disposal.
   
   

     The consortiums, therefore, concluded that there would not be sufficient toxic wastes for such a centralised plant to collect and treat viably.