The secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality must treat waste reduction as a primary department issue and reflect that priority in relevant decisions and policies.
§2292. Policy; purpose; primacy of waste reduction A. The legislature finds and declares that the handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous and solid waste is posing an ever increasing economic burden and environmental risk to the citizens of this state; that the past efforts taken by the state and federal government to control pollution from waste after such waste has been generated have often resulted in wastes being transferred from one medium to another; that generation of certain amounts of waste can accumulate to environmentally unacceptable levels when postpollution controlled discharges from many generators enter the environment; that waste management and treatment activities are and can be beneficial, but that all waste treatment and recycling facilities pose some environmental risk and thus require effective regulation, and that the most certain means of preventing environmental risk is through waste reduction; that waste reduction may be used as a tool to improve industrial efficiency, growth, and international competitiveness; and that establishing a comprehensive, omnimedia approach to reducing wastes going into the air, land, and water is essential. B. To insure that proper emphasis is given to waste reduction as a policy of this state and as a primary goal of the Department of Environmental Quality, the legislature does hereby direct the secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality to establish waste reduction as an issue of primacy for the department. The secretary shall assert and reflect the primacy of waste reduction in policies and determinations made pursuant to fulfilling his authority and duty under the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act. Acts 1987, No. 657, §2.