An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Pre-Incident All-Hazards Waste Management Plan Guidelines: Four-Step Waste Management Planning Process

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends that communities have a pre-incident waste management plan (WMP) (may also be called a debris management plan) that addresses the management of waste generated by all hazards. The WMP should particularly address wide area homeland security incidents ranging from natural disasters and animal disease outbreaks to chemical spills and nuclear power plant accidents to terrorist attacks involving conventional, chemical, radiological, or biological agents. A WMP that addresses only natural disasters is inadequate for other threats communities may encounter. This document describes the recommended pre-incident waste management (WM) planning process to assist communities in preparing for an incident’s waste management need, regardless of the hazard.

This document describes the four steps of the waste management planning process.

You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.