Ministerial Decision No. YPEN/DDA/124219/1717 of 2024. Approval of a revised National Hazardous Waste Management Plan (NHWMP).

This Ministerial Decision provides for the approval of a revised National Hazardous Waste Management Plan, prepared in accordance with articles 54 and 55 of Law 4819/2021. The main aim of the Plan is the reduction of the quantity of hazardous waste produced and its riskiness and the consequent protection of the environment and public health, in compliance with the relevant terms and conditions of the national and EU legislation and by implementing the best available techniques, integrating circular economy practices. The Plan covers the following categories of hazardous waste: hazardous municipal solid waste, industrial hazardous waste, waste containing asbestos, or polychlorinated biphenyls/triphenyls (PCB/PCT), waste oils, waste vehicle and industrial batteries, electrical and electronic equipment, hazardous waste from healthcare facilities, hazardous waste from ships. This Management Plan defines the following objectives for its implementation: separate collection for hazardous fractions of waste generated by households, in order to ensure that hazardous waste is properly treated and does not pollute other municipal waste streams; ensuring the rational management of industrial hazardous waste; improving self-sufficiency of the country in disposal networks of industrial hazardous waste; establishing a network of asbestos waste disposal facilities; increasing collection, recycling and recovery performance for waste batteries and electrical and electronic equipment, in order to meet the targets resulting from relevant EU legislation; strengthening separate collection and further management of hazardous waste.
The structure of the Management Plan concerns the following topics: aggregated data on current production and management of hazardous waste, for each different category; monitoring indicators; evaluation of current situation; proposed and targeted actions for implementing the Plan; concerning hazardous waste from ships, implementation of waste reception and management plan drawn up by ports authorities in compliance with the provisions of the International Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78); waste management and environmental protection criteria; water resources protection criteria; control of protection zones of water abstraction points; protection of irrigation reservoirs with water uses, and of country's thermal springs of each category; residential, urban and spatial planning; cultural heritage protection criteria.