TY - JOUR

T1 - Sharp discrepancies between nuclear and conventional toxic waste

T2 - Technical analysis and public perception

AU - Seidl, Roman

AU - Flüeler, Thomas

AU - Krütli, Pius

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Corinne Moser and Matthias Dhum for their contributions to the survey development. We are also grateful to Dario Pedolin for the data analysis. For this research, we received funding from Swissnuclear and the National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra).

PY - 2021/7/15

Y1 - 2021/7/15

N2 - Partly due to failed approaches in nuclear waste (NW) governance, years of high levels of attention have resulted in novel, more participatory avenues in Switzerland and other countries. What can be said about the case of conventional hazardous waste (CHW) from households? What technical and legal aspects are similar to or different from those of the NW domain? How does the public perceive CHW and its handling? We address these (so far) open questions in this study that comprises multiple methodological approaches. We combine a technical and system assessment with a societal (perception) assessment, based on a representative survey (N = 3082) among the German-speaking population of Switzerland. We draw some conclusions for a possible way forward in hazardous waste policy and governance. We find a remarkable disparity between technical analysis and public perception. The community should discuss whether the current NW management is forward-looking and may serve as a model for CHW. For CHW, the multiplicity of agents and the heterogeneity of substances may make the situation too complex, non-transparent, and thus less salient in the public perception. Paradoxically, the ubiquity of conventional waste, traditional community landfills, and everyday handling of some waste may make it appear less alarming than NW.

AB - Partly due to failed approaches in nuclear waste (NW) governance, years of high levels of attention have resulted in novel, more participatory avenues in Switzerland and other countries. What can be said about the case of conventional hazardous waste (CHW) from households? What technical and legal aspects are similar to or different from those of the NW domain? How does the public perceive CHW and its handling? We address these (so far) open questions in this study that comprises multiple methodological approaches. We combine a technical and system assessment with a societal (perception) assessment, based on a representative survey (N = 3082) among the German-speaking population of Switzerland. We draw some conclusions for a possible way forward in hazardous waste policy and governance. We find a remarkable disparity between technical analysis and public perception. The community should discuss whether the current NW management is forward-looking and may serve as a model for CHW. For CHW, the multiplicity of agents and the heterogeneity of substances may make the situation too complex, non-transparent, and thus less salient in the public perception. Paradoxically, the ubiquity of conventional waste, traditional community landfills, and everyday handling of some waste may make it appear less alarming than NW.

KW - Conventional hazardous waste

KW - Governance

KW - Nuclear/radioactive waste

KW - Risk perception

KW - Technical safety assessment

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102367497&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125422

DO - 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125422

M3 - Article

C2 - 34030397

AN - SCOPUS:85102367497

VL - 414

JO - Journal of hazardous materials

JF - Journal of hazardous materials

SN - 0304-3894

M1 - 125422

ER -