우리나라 유해폐기물법제의 개선방향

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Hazardous waste can cause irreparable damage to human life and environment when they are ill managed. In Korea, hazardous waste are regulated by the Waste Management Act.
Korean legislation on waste management and disposal has been largely changed reflecting the world-wide sustainable development slogan and the industry-wide resource recycling campaign. For example, European Union has put the limit on the kind and amount of polluted emissions of automobiles, and restricts the
importation of the cars which could produce the emissions exceeding the limit. As a result, the management and disposal of hazardous waste have a great influence on the foreign trade.
Generally, each country regulates the definition and management of hazardous waste in a different manner. In Korea, hazardous waste are listed in the Waste Management Act. When they are transported to other place, the transportation
route shall be determined to avoid any probable incident which might cause damage to the public. At the same time, a comprehensive incident response system should be established to immediately deal with the incident related with waste under transportation. The administrative permission to build and operate hazardous waste facilities should be processed in a proper and streamlined manner when there is an urgent need for facilities at a certain location.
If any resident or interested person raises an objection to the administrative
permission in hearings to deal with hazardous waste issues, only he or she has standing to file a lawsuit with the court. If the hazardous waste facilities are transferred to a third party, the approval procedure of the competent authority should be arranged. And any affected person should be compensated from a liability reserve fund aside from ordinary civil damages.
As mentioned above, the improvement of current legal regime on hazardous waste is necessary. But the more important thing is the enhanced public awareness of the environment and increased surveillance and administrative supervision on this matter.