Activists occasionally catch wind of incidents of hazardous waste mismanagement that has for one bureaucratic reason or another been swept under the carpet or not immediately addressed. In these cases the first steps tend to be informing local authorities and other local watch dogs like the news media.

Generally when these sorts of road blocks happen in a basic hazardous waste removal situation it can take a long time and cutting through a lot of red tape to reach a point where you might actually get the problem taken care of. Pressure from local authorities can work quickly on an operational business but if for example a factory that once handled various chemicals or biological waste goes out of business it is more difficult to hold someone accountable. Chemical and biological waste disposal are not necessarily things that everyone including government bureaucrats understand.

Getting locals to understand the severity of these problems in these cases and rally around the cause is the best way to get one of these sorts of situations taken care of. If such a facility has been shut down or gone out of business in your area it is important to stay aware of what kind of affect it might be having on the environment.