Ali Zuweid's Political Programme
Legislative proposal · Energy, Infrastructure, Water, Environment and Urban Development
Waste Management, Circular Economy and Hazardous Substances Law
Executive summary
The proposal shifts Iraqi waste regulation from dispersed prohibition and licensing rules to an integrated lifecycle framework, beginning with waste prevention and ending in safe disposal. It adds instruments not yet covered by a comprehensive national framework: source separation, secondary-material standards, extended producer responsibility, electronic hazardous-waste tracking, special-stream regulation, informal-worker inclusion and the circular economy.
Official 2025 data demonstrate the institutional gap: 13.6 million tonnes of ordinary waste and 8.1 million tonnes of demolition and construction debris were collected; the report identified 133 landfill sites without environmental approval versus 65 approved sites and one operating sorting and recycling plant. Collection covered 68.6% of the population in the report's Iraqi coverage, excluding the Kurdistan Region. The proposal therefore bases legal obligations on progressive coverage, data and oversight rather than national numerical targets unsupported by a complete baseline.
No parallel executive authority is created. The Ministry of Environment retains environmental standards, tracking and oversight; Baghdad Municipality, governorates and municipalities retain local-service responsibilities within their powers; and the federal ministry responsible for municipalities and health, industrial and customs bodies coordinate. This reflects shared environmental-policy competence under Article (114/Third) and decentralisation and constitutional-priority rules in Articles (115) and (122).
The proposal recognises Parliament's first reading of the Municipal Solid Waste Management Bill on 9 September 2026. Rather than parallel laws, it requires a unified legislative pathway combining municipal provisions with industrial and hazardous waste, special streams and circular-economy rules.
Current constitutional and legislative context
Article (33) guarantees everyone's right to healthy environmental conditions and requires state protection of the environment and biodiversity. Article (114/Third) makes environmental policymaking a shared federal–regional competence in cooperation with governorates not incorporated into a region. Article (115) affects interpretation of shared powers, while Article (122) grants those governorates broad administrative and financial powers through decentralisation. Modern waste law therefore requires a federal framework for standards, international obligations and transboundary streams, with locally planned and delivered services, rather than unified central operation.
Environmental Protection and Improvement Law No. (27) of 2009 remains an important general foundation, particularly hazardous-chemical and waste registers and Article (20) rules on handling, transport, storage, treatment and approvals. Sector instructions include Environmental Protection from Municipal Waste Instructions No. (2) of 2014, Health-Institution Waste Instructions No. (1) of 2015, and Hazardous Waste Management Instructions recorded in the Ministry's 2024–2030 strategy as No. (3) of 2015. These do not integrate waste lifecycles, circular economy, producer responsibility and special streams in one law.
The Ministry already operates electronic hazardous-waste transport approval requiring a permit, movement document, safety data sheet and warning labels, with producers, recipients and carriers environmentally approved. The proposal builds on this practice, elevating it to unified cradle-to-final-treatment tracking.
Iraq has been a party to the Basel Convention on transboundary hazardous-waste movement and disposal since 2011, subsequently joining its amendment through Law No. (13) of 2021. It is also party to the Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions and has ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Hazardous-material and waste management therefore entails notification, tracking, illegal-traffic prevention and environmentally sound management obligations beyond local affairs.
National baseline
The Statistics and Geographic Information Systems Authority's 2025 municipal-services report provides the latest published official baseline available when preparing this proposal. Its figures must be read within its coverage, especially exclusion of Kurdistan, without converting the percentage of governorates by predominant disposal method into a share of national waste weight.
| Indicator | Official 2025 value | Legislative implication |
|---|---|---|
| Population served by waste collection | 68.6% of the population; 93.5% in urban areas | Clear access gaps beyond urban centres justify progressive coverage duties and service-level indicators. |
| Collected waste | 21.8 million tonnes/year: 13.6 million tonnes ordinary waste and 8.1 million tonnes rubble/construction and demolition waste | Construction and demolition waste is large enough to require distinct regulation within the Law. |
| Collected hazardous waste | 11,451.5 tonnes/year | This measures municipal collection within the report, not necessarily all national generation, requiring source-based tracking. |
| Ordinary waste rate | 1.4 kg/person/day | Volume justifies prevention, separation and recovery before landfill. |
| Predominant disposal method | In 93.8% of covered governorates, the predominant method was disposal at sites without environmental approval | This is a percentage of governorates by predominant method, not national waste weight. |
| Landfill sites | 65 environmentally approved sites versus 133 without approval | Requires risk classification and phased closure/upgrading, stopping new unlicensed sites. |
| Operating sorting and recycling plants | One operating plant according to the report | Supports market, facility, secondary-material and producer-responsibility regulation beyond disposal and collection orders. |
Source: Statistics and Geographic Information Systems Authority, Iraq Environmental Statistics — Municipal Services Sector 2025, published 2026.
Legislative policy
The proposal combines seven choices: a waste hierarchy; no new administrative apparatus; decentralised municipal services and service standards; extended producer responsibility for suitable streams; auditable data and tracking; energy recovery reserved for residual waste rather than replacing recycling; and tighter hazardous-waste, hazardous-substance and transboundary controls.
| Body | Proposed statutory role |
|---|---|
| Ministry of Environment | Environmental standards, hazardous-waste classification, tracking, environmental licensing, international obligations and oversight. |
| Federal ministry responsible for municipalities | Model service guides and standards, capacity building and national coordination without central operation of local services. |
| Baghdad Municipality, governorates and municipalities | Plan, operate or contract collection, transport and local facilities; set charges and service levels and remove illegal dumping. |
| Ministry of Health and health bodies | Separate healthcare waste within facilities, control infection and coordinate transport and treatment. |
| Industrial, commercial and standardisation bodies | Secondary-material standards, resource efficiency and producer and product requirements. |
| Customs, border and security authorities | Prevent illegal traffic, verify documents, seize and refer cases under law. |
The Law sets no national recycling percentages, factory numbers or single capital cost. These operational figures require a comprehensive baseline, waste composition, markets, sites and treatment technologies. It instead mandates a national strategy, local plans, uniform indicators and financial statements, making subsequent targets reviewable and accountable.
Draft law
Proposed federal law
In the name of the people
Presidency of the Republic
Pursuant to approval by the Council of Representatives and under the Constitution, the following Law is issued:
Chapter One — General provisions, definitions and principles
Article (1) — Title and scope
This Law is called the Waste Management, Circular Economy and Hazardous Substances Law. It applies to waste generation, possession, sorting, collection, transport, storage, treatment, recovery, reuse, recycling and final disposal; extended producer-responsibility systems; and hazardous-substance management insofar as preventing hazardous-waste generation and ensuring safe handling, storage, transport and disposal.
Article (2) — Objectives
The Law protects public health and the environment; reduces waste generation and hazards; improves material and resource efficiency; shifts from collection and dumping to prevention, reuse, recycling and safe recovery; ensures regular, equitable municipal services; establishes hazardous-waste tracking and accountability; and develops regulated secondary-material markets and responsible investment.
Article (3) — Basic definitions
Waste means any substance or object its holder discards, intends or is required to discard; municipal waste means household waste and comparable commercial or institutional waste; hazardous waste exhibits hazardous properties or contains components making unsafe management seriously dangerous to people or the environment; hazardous substances are chemicals, biological or other substances requiring special precautions under applicable legislation; recovery means operations whose principal result substitutes materials or energy for resources otherwise required.
Article (4) — Circular-economy definitions
Reuse means using products or components for the same purpose without becoming waste; preparation for reuse means checking, cleaning and repairing waste or used products; recycling means reprocessing waste into materials, products or secondary raw materials; by-product means an incidental production output with certain lawful use requiring no processing beyond normal industrial practice; end-of-waste status means recovered material meets criteria ensuring use, market, specifications and no overall adverse impact.
Article (5) — Waste hierarchy
Public and private bodies shall prioritise prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery including environmentally justified energy recovery, and safe final disposal, according to responsibility. A specific stream may depart from this order by reasoned decision based on lifecycle assessment, technical feasibility and health and environmental impacts.
Article (6) — Polluter pays
Waste generators, holders and product producers shall, according to their obligations, bear reasonable costs of harm prevention, collection, transport, treatment, recovery, disposal and repair of harm they cause, without relieving public-service providers of statutory duties.
Article (7) — Proximity and safe self-sufficiency
Facility planning shall consider distance, risk, cost, capacity and geographic distribution, favouring safe, efficient treatment near sources and adequate national capacity for essential and hazardous streams manageable domestically using best available techniques.
Article (8) — Precaution and no harm transfer
Management methods may not reduce impacts in one location or environmental medium by transferring greater harm elsewhere. Reasonable risks of serious or irreversible harm require proportionate precautions despite incomplete scientific certainty, subject to evidence-based review.
Article (9) — Source separation and no mixing
Regulations shall identify streams requiring source separation. Hazardous waste may not be mixed with non-hazardous waste or diluted to alter classification or evade treatment. Controlled mixing within licensed facilities is permitted where necessary for safe processes without increased risk.
Article (10) — Health and worker protection
All stages require occupational health and safety, protective equipment, training and emergency plans. Children may not collect, sort, transport or treat hazardous waste or perform work exposing them to health, mechanical or chemical risks.
Article (11) — Environmental and sectoral laws
This Law shall be interpreted consistently with applicable environmental-protection, public-health, labour, transport, traffic, customs, investment, standards and nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological-control legislation. Where requirements overlap, the more protective rule applies unless a specialised law provides otherwise within its jurisdiction.
Article (12) — Federal and decentralised scope
This Law establishes national standards and a shared framework within federal and shared competences. Regions, governorates not incorporated into a region, Baghdad Municipality and municipalities retain constitutional and statutory service-regulation and delivery powers and supplementary local requirements. No provision diminishes those powers.
Chapter Two — Governance and responsibilities
Article (13) — Federal environmental authority
The Ministry of Environment shall establish national environmental waste standards, classify hazardous waste, administer registers and tracking, authorise hazardous activities within its jurisdiction, monitor international obligations, coordinate national reporting and conduct lawful environmental inspections.
Article (14) — Federal municipal authority
The federal ministry responsible for municipalities shall, with Baghdad Municipality, governorates and environmental bodies, develop model technical guides for collection, transport, transfer stations, sorting and sanitary landfill, build capacity and standardise minimum performance data without replacing local providers.
Article (15) — Baghdad Municipality, governorates and municipalities
Local authorities shall plan municipal waste services, designate routes, collection points, stations and facilities, contract operations, monitor service levels, collect authorised charges, remove illegal dumping and implement site closure and rehabilitation within their jurisdiction.
Article (16) — Ministry of Health and health authorities
Health authorities shall establish and implement healthcare-waste separation within facilities, infection control, staff training and generator monitoring, coordinating external transport, treatment and disposal of hazardous healthcare waste with the Ministry of Environment.
Article (17) — Industrial and commercial authorities
Industry, trade and standardisation authorities shall promote resource efficiency, recycled content, repairability and secondary-material standards and integrate producer-responsibility requirements into product and establishment registration with environmental and customs bodies.
Article (18) — Customs, borders and security authorities
Customs, border and competent security bodies shall cooperate with the Ministry of Environment to prevent illegal waste and hazardous-substance trafficking, verify notices, permits and documents, and seize and refer suspicious shipments under legal safeguards.
Article (19) — National coordination committee
A permanent waste-management and circular-economy team shall operate within the environmental council established by existing environmental law, including relevant federal bodies and regional, governorate and Baghdad representatives when their responsibilities are affected. It coordinates plans, standards and cross-administrative-boundary streams, but neither operates facilities nor awards contracts.
Article (20) — Preventing institutional duplication
No new independent waste-management executive authority is created. Existing structures shall be used; specialist units may be formed within ministry and local staffing or organisational laws where need is demonstrated.
Article (21) — Local service regulator
Local service providers or regulators shall separate regulation and oversight from direct or contracted operation where possible, publish standards, tariffs, indicators and complaint mechanisms, and prevent award and supervision conflicts.
Article (22) — Inter-governorate coordination
Two or more governorates may establish shared treatment, sanitary-landfill or regional facilities under local-administration law where savings or better environmental protection result. Agreements shall allocate costs, capacity, responsibilities and oversight.
Article (23) — Public participation
National and local plans and major facilities require published consultation periods proportionate to impacts, with summaries of comments and substantive responses. Lawful trade confidentiality shall be protected without concealing material health and environmental risk information.
Article (24) — Universities and civil society
Authorities may contract or cooperate with universities, research centres, professional organisations and civil society on studies, laboratories, awareness and community monitoring. Regulatory and sovereign decisions remain with competent public bodies.
Article (25) — Administrative overlap
Federal jurisdictional disputes shall go to the Council of Ministers or competent coordinating body under law. Constitutional disputes involving regions or governorates require constitutional and judicial mechanisms rather than unilateral administrative decisions.
Chapter Three — Planning, data and national register
Article (26) — National strategy
The Council of Ministers shall adopt a participatively prepared ten-year waste-management and circular-economy strategy, reviewed every five years, defining baseline, objectives, priorities, critical streams, required capacity, financing and responsibilities.
Article (27) — Local plans
Baghdad Municipality and each governorate or competent regional authority shall prepare a plan lasting at least five years, covering generation, service areas, separation, facilities, organics, special waste, dumping, non-compliant landfill closure, financing and service continuity.
Article (28) — Data-based planning
Major treatment or landfill facilities and long-term financial commitments require waste-composition and quantity data, demand projections, technical and economic alternatives, lifecycle and risk analysis, and existing and planned capacity assessment.
Article (29) — National waste information system
With the Statistics and Geographic Information Systems Authority and sector bodies, the Ministry of Environment shall establish an interconnected system collecting standardised generator, facility, municipal and producer-responsibility data and issuing regular public indicators.
Article (30) — Waste coding and classification
The Minister shall issue a national waste-code and hazard-classification list with relevant bodies, consistent with Basel and suitable international practice, clearly distinguishing waste, secondary materials and used products.
Article (31) — Reporting duties
Licensed establishments, major generators, treatment operators and producer-responsibility organisations shall periodically report accurate quantities, streams, destinations and treatment results. Regulatory thresholds shall avoid disproportionate small-business burdens.
Article (32) — Traceability
Data must trace waste from source to final treatment according to risk. Electronic records are compulsory for hazardous and designated special streams, with establishment and shipment identifiers and protection against retrospective tampering.
Article (33) — Publication and transparency
Authorities shall annually publish machine-readable aggregate generation, collection, recycling, treatment, landfill, facility, violation and service data, protecting trade secrets and personal information except lawful disclosure.
Article (34) — Compliance indicators
Implementing regulations shall standardise collection coverage, source separation, material recovery, treated organics, compliant and non-compliant landfills, hazardous incidents, tracked shipments and closure-plan progress, without fixed numerical targets before a valid national baseline exists.
Chapter Four — Municipal waste services, collection and transport
Article (35) — Right to safe service
Authorities shall progressively provide regular, safe collection to all inhabited areas under published schedules, prioritising underserved areas and dumping sites posing health risks.
Article (36) — User duties
Occupants shall place waste in designated containers, locations and times, comply with source separation and refrain from dumping or burning on roads, public land, waterways, drainage networks or outside licensed sites.
Article (37) — Special groups and informal areas
Local authorities shall provide practical arrangements for informal, rural and inaccessible areas. Lack of property title alone cannot deny minimum collection or public-health protection.
Article (38) — Collection standards
Regulators shall specify containers, vehicles, collection frequency, collection-point cleanliness, leachate and load-scattering prevention and equipment washing, with separate routes for waste unsuitable for ordinary municipal mixing.
Article (39) — Separate collection
Source separation shall progress under local plans, starting with market-viable or environmentally significant streams. Suitable separate collection or reception points must precede broad household obligations.
Article (40) — Major commercial and institutional generators
Hotels, markets, commercial complexes, public institutions, restaurants and other major generators may be required to separate paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, glass, organics or other relevant streams, delivering them to licensed collectors or facilities and retaining records.
Article (41) — Transfer stations
Transfer stations require compliant siting, design, environmental approval, safety and odour, leachate, noise, fire and pest controls. Maximum storage periods shall reflect waste type and climate.
Article (42) — Carrier licensing
Commercial, industrial and special-waste carriers require licensing or registration according to risk. Limited self-transport of non-hazardous household waste to public reception points is exempt, subject to safety and no-dumping duties.
Article (43) — Transport vehicles
Vehicles must suit loads and be closed or covered against leakage and dispersal, displaying carrier identification. Additional requirements apply to hazardous, healthcare, odorous and flammable waste.
Article (44) — Service contracts
Collection, transport and treatment contracts shall follow applicable procurement, partnership and investment laws, specifying measurable indicators, weight and destination audits, price adjustment, contractual penalties, continuity and public-body data rights.
Article (45) — Preventing monopoly and facility access
Exclusive rights may not exceed demonstrated service and investment sustainability needs. Monopolistic or publicly supported facilities may be required to serve qualified users transparently and without discrimination within capacity.
Article (46) — Continuity and emergencies
Local bodies and operators shall prepare plans for emergencies, disasters, strikes, failures, floods and heatwaves, identifying temporary alternatives, equipment reserves, backup routes and healthcare and hazardous-waste priorities.
Article (47) — Complaints and service levels
Local authorities shall publish reporting channels and response times for dumping, interruptions and risks, periodically disclosing performance, complaint numbers and resolution while protecting reporters' data.
Chapter Five — Prevention, reuse, recycling and organic waste
Article (48) — Prevention programmes
Authorities shall reduce losses, unnecessary packaging and single-use products where practical alternatives exist, promoting repair, refilling, sharing and donation of usable products, respecting food safety, health and competition.
Article (49) — Reuse and repair centres
Municipalities, businesses and social organisations may establish centres receiving repairable, reusable furniture, appliances and materials. Regulations shall govern safety, consumer protection and distinction between used products and waste.
Article (50) — Sorting and material-recovery facilities
Sorting licences shall reflect inputs, capacity, safety and output quality. Operators shall manage rejects, fire, dust, pests and washwater and prevent environmental releases.
Article (51) — Recycled-material quality
The standards authority and Ministry of Environment shall set specifications for secondary materials, recycled aggregates, compost, refuse-derived fuel and other necessary products, ensuring safety and preventing contaminant transfer into new products or soil.
Article (52) — End-of-waste status
Regulatory decisions may end waste status for recovered streams normally used for specified purposes, having a market or demand, meeting technical and legal requirements and causing no overall adverse impacts. Producers remain responsible for conformity and accurate information.
Article (53) — Industrial by-products
Production outputs may be classified as by-products rather than waste where subsequent use is certain and lawful, direct or requiring only ordinary processing, integral to production and without unacceptable health or environmental impacts.
Article (54) — Organic waste
Local plans shall prioritise food-waste prevention and organic separation in markets, restaurants and major generators before gradual household expansion, directing suitable organics to composting, anaerobic digestion or other recovery respecting output quality.
Article (55) — Compost and soil improvers
Waste-derived compost may be marketed only after meeting quality, contaminant, pathogen, heavy-metal and maturity standards, with sampling, tracking and labelling requirements.
Article (56) — Secondary-material markets
Economic and industrial bodies shall remove unjustified barriers to recycled-material use and develop industrial by-product and secondary-material exchange platforms, retaining quality, competition and consumer safeguards.
Chapter Six — Treatment, recovery and landfill facilities
Article (57) — Facility licensing
Waste treatment, recovery or disposal facilities require environmental, technical and planning approvals. Licences shall specify waste types, capacity, technologies, operating limits, monitoring and closure plans.
Article (58) — Best available techniques
Technology choices shall consider best available techniques suited to Iraq, resource and energy efficiency, waste characteristics and institutional operating and maintenance capacity. Technologies require available supply chains, operational expertise and sustainable financing plans.
Article (59) — Mechanical and biological treatment
Mechanical sorting and biological or mechanical-biological treatment may produce materials, fuel or stabilised outputs. Rejects and non-conforming materials cannot count as recycling; outputs shall be managed by actual characteristics.
Article (60) — Energy recovery
Incineration or thermal energy recovery shall not replace prevention, reuse or recycling. It is limited to suitable streams or residuals after material recovery, requiring lifecycle assessment, specified energy efficiency and strict emissions, ash, continuous-monitoring and transparency controls.
Article (61) — Incineration without recovery
Incineration without effective energy recovery is disposal, licensed only where waste characteristics or health safety require it and no higher-hierarchy alternative exists, under stream-specific environmental conditions.
Article (62) — Open-burning prohibition
Open waste burning on streets, land, dumps, farms and unlicensed sites is prohibited except specific emergencies authorised by other legislation after health and environmental protection measures.
Article (63) — Sanitary landfill
Only waste that cannot feasibly and safely be prevented or recovered shall be landfilled. Engineered designs require liners, leachate collection and treatment, gas and surface-water management, groundwater monitoring, access and weighing controls, cover, closure and aftercare plans.
Article (64) — Landfill acceptance
Regulations shall define acceptance criteria by landfill class, prohibiting free liquids, explosive or reactive waste and untreated categories requiring pretreatment. Dilution to pass acceptance criteria is prohibited.
Article (65) — Financial security
Landfill and hazardous-treatment operators require financial guarantees, insurance or equivalents sufficient for reasonable closure, aftercare and incident-response obligations. Amounts reflect capacity and risk and are not general-purpose public revenue.
Article (66) — Post-closure monitoring
Operators retain monitoring and maintenance duties for licence-defined periods based on continuing risks. Financial security ends only after authorities verify site stability and absence of unfunded residual environmental obligations.
Article (67) — Dumps and non-compliant sites
Local bodies and the Ministry shall inventory and risk-classify non-compliant dumps and landfills and schedule closure, upgrading or replacement, prioritising threats to water, settlements and fire-prone sites.
Chapter Seven — Construction, demolition, industrial and commercial waste
Article (68) — Construction and demolition waste plans
Projects above regulatory thresholds may require plans estimating quantities, on-site separation, metal, wood, concrete and brick recovery, licensed destinations and delivery evidence.
Article (69) — Selective demolition
Selective demolition is preferred where building condition permits, recovering components and materials and reducing hazardous mixing. Asbestos, contaminated materials and other hazards require prior identification and qualified management.
Article (70) — Recycled aggregates
Recycled aggregates may be used where geotechnical, structural and environmental conformity is established. Contaminated materials may not be disposed of as fill, roads or structures disguised as engineering use.
Article (71) — Industrial waste
Industrial generators shall prevent generation, reduce hazards, separate and characterise streams and deliver them to licensed bodies. Major generators shall periodically plan material and waste efficiency proportionately to size and risk.
Article (72) — Commercial waste
Commercial and service activities require proportionate separation, storage and collection. Regulations shall set risk-based conditions for oils, fats, expired food, packaging, flammables and other streams.
Article (73) — Industrial symbiosis
Industrial zones shall promote lawful, technically suitable use of one establishment's by-products, energy or treated water as another's inputs, documenting quality and transport responsibilities.
Article (74) — Residues and sludge
Water- and wastewater-treatment sludge and industrial residues shall be classified by characteristics. Agricultural or soil-improvement use requires contaminant, pathogen and monitoring standards. Hazardous or special-treatment sludge may not enter municipal dumps.
Chapter Eight — Extended producer responsibility and special streams
Article (75) — Extended producer responsibility
Specified producers and importers may bear financial or organisational post-consumer duties, including registration, collection, transport, treatment, reuse, recycling, awareness and reporting, without transferring licensed operators' environmental-compliance responsibilities.
Article (76) — Covered streams
Regulations shall designate streams after market and impact assessment, prioritising packaging, electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators, tyres, used oils, end-of-life vehicles and other high-volume, hazardous or recoverable-value streams.
Article (77) — Producer register
A national register shall cover responsible producers and importers. Covered products may not be marketed commercially without registration and compliance. Domestic and imported products shall be treated equitably, respecting Iraq's trade obligations.
Article (78) — Collective responsibility organisations
Producers may establish non-profit or accredited collective entities subject to governance, financial and technical audits, conflict rules and transparent operator selection. Qualified individual compliance remains permitted.
Article (79) — Producer charges and environmental modulation
Contributions shall reflect quantities, types and net management costs and may vary by repairability, reusability, recyclability, hazardous content and durability to encourage better design, using published, verifiable, non-discriminatory criteria.
Article (80) — Targets and measurement
Regulatory collection and recovery targets require reliable baselines and market and facility-capacity analysis. Results shall use documented weights and actual recovery; collection, export or storage alone cannot count as recycling.
Article (81) — Deposit-return systems
Viable packaging or product deposit-return schemes may be established, defining deposit values, refunds, return points, unclaimed funds, fraud prevention and geographic access.
Article (82) — Electrical and electronic waste
Electrical and electronic waste shall progressively be separated from mixed municipal waste, with free or producer-financed collection for covered household streams. Hazardous components must be removed before crushing and treatment; device data shall be protected through clear guidance and responsibilities.
Article (83) — Batteries and accumulators
Covered batteries may not enter municipal waste once reception systems exist. Collection, storage and transport rules shall prevent short circuits, leakage and fires, with specific controls for lithium, vehicle and lead batteries.
Article (84) — Used tyres
Used-tyre systems shall prevent open burning, dumping and unsafe storage, defining reuse, retreading, recycling and suitable energy recovery, with fire, mosquito and standing-water prevention.
Article (85) — Used oils
Used oils shall be collected separately from water and solvents, prioritising re-refining or material-value-preserving recovery where possible. Discharge to soil, water or sewers and unlicensed burning are prohibited.
Article (86) — End-of-life vehicles
Accredited centres shall receive end-of-life vehicles and remove fluids, batteries, airbags and hazardous parts before dismantling and crushing, exchanging registration data to prevent identity recycling and illegal parts trading.
Article (87) — Packaging and plastics
Authorities shall progressively reduce unnecessary packaging and improve reuse and recycling. Specific single-use plastics may be restricted after alternative and economic and health impact assessment, allowing appropriate small-business transitions.
Chapter Nine — Hazardous substances, hazardous waste and healthcare waste
Article (88) — National hazardous-substance and waste register
The Ministry shall maintain an interconnected register with the National Nuclear, Radiological, Chemical and Biological Regulatory Authority and sector bodies, preventing duplication through data exchange and designation of each register's primary authority.
Article (89) — Hazard classification
Hazard properties and lists require published technical decisions. Unlisted waste may be classified hazardous where testing or origin establishes equivalent danger; documented declassification requires actual removal of hazardous characteristics.
Article (90) — Generator duty of care
Hazardous-waste generators shall know types and quantities, minimise at source, separate incompatible streams, package, label and store safely, transfer only to licensed carriers and recipients, and retain prescribed records.
Article (91) — Safety information and labelling
Hazardous materials and waste shall carry identity, property, risk and incident-response information using appropriate recognised safety data sheets, symbols and labels. Removing or falsifying labels or concealing hazards is prohibited.
Article (92) — Temporary storage
Licences or regulations shall limit storage duration and quantity and require secondary containment, chemical compatibility, ventilation, fire protection and unauthorised-access prevention. Storage may not indefinitely postpone disposal.
Article (93) — Electronic movement document
Off-site hazardous shipments require electronic or backup paper movement documents with unique codes identifying source, carrier, quantity, classification, destination and receipt and treatment confirmation. Systems shall automatically flag overdue shipments.
Article (94) — Hazardous-waste carriers
Carriers require licences, suitable vehicles and equipment, training, emergency plans and insurance where appropriate. Incompatible loads or undocumented, unapproved destination changes are prohibited; routes shall minimise residential exposure where safe and feasible.
Article (95) — Hazardous-waste treatment
Hazardous waste may be treated only in facilities licensed for the particular process, using technologies proven to remove or stabilise hazards or safely recover materials. Residues, water, emissions and ash shall be managed as waste according to post-treatment properties.
Article (96) — On-site treatment
On-site treatment may be permitted where safer and reducing transport, subject to licensing, oversight and technical competence, without evading commercial-facility or disposal requirements.
Article (97) — Healthcare waste
Healthcare waste shall be separated at generation into ordinary, infectious, sharps, chemical, pharmaceutical and other regulatory categories, using coded sealed packaging and safe internal routes. Hazardous fractions require appropriate treatment before final disposal.
Article (98) — Expired medicines and pharmaceuticals
Health and environmental authorities shall regulate return and destruction of expired or returned pharmaceuticals, preventing recirculation and hazardous disposal into sewers or household waste, defining pharmacy, warehouse, manufacturer and importer responsibilities.
Article (99) — Persistent organic pollutant waste
Waste containing persistent organic pollutants shall be identified, separated, stored and treated under Iraq's Stockholm obligations, preventing recovery or recycling that returns prohibited pollutants to markets or the environment.
Article (100) — Mercury-containing waste
Mercury-containing products and waste shall follow Minamata obligations and national laws, prioritising separate collection, no mixing and safe treatment or final storage to prevent releases to air, water and soil.
Article (101) — Contaminated packaging and pesticide residues
Chemical and pesticide packaging and residues shall be managed by hazard characteristics. Farmer and commercial-user take-back arrangements shall prevent dangerous containers being reused for household or food purposes, coordinating agricultural and health bodies.
Article (102) — Incident response
Generators, carriers and operators shall immediately report spills, fires, losses or incidents threatening health or the environment, take initial containment measures, inform emergency bodies and bear response and decontamination costs where responsible.
Article (103) — Radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is outside this Law's technical licensing and regulation, governed by National Nuclear, Radiological, Chemical and Biological Regulatory Authority Law No. (1) of 2024 and implementing legislation. General environmental liability and multi-hazard-site coordination continue where compatible.
Chapter Ten — Transboundary movement and illegal traffic
Article (104) — Basel Convention framework
Transboundary hazardous and other controlled waste movements shall comply with Basel and obligations and amendments applicable to Iraq, using prior informed consent and prescribed documentation and guarantees.
Article (105) — Competent authority
The Council of Ministers shall designate national Basel authorities and contact points, publishing notification, consent, refusal, tracking, reporting and return powers, with a unified electronic service window.
Article (106) — Hazardous-waste imports
Hazardous-waste imports for final disposal are prohibited. Recovery movements require compatibility with international and national law, demonstrated need and technical and environmental capacity, and assurance Iraq will not receive waste that cannot safely be managed in its country of origin.
Article (107) — Hazardous-waste exports
Exports require an importing state permitting them, a licensed facility and prior written consent of relevant states, with demonstrated environmentally sound treatment. Export does not remove generator or exporter responsibilities retained under law, contract or convention.
Article (108) — Transit
Controlled shipments transiting Iraq require notice, consent, insurance and safeguards against unauthorised unloading or route changes. Authorities shall specify routes, border points and emergency requirements.
Article (109) — Illegal traffic
Transboundary movements constitute illegal traffic when required notice or consent is absent, consent is fraudulently obtained, shipments materially differ from documents or deliberate disposal violates the Convention. Return or safe-management measures shall charge responsible parties.
Article (110) — Amendment joined by Iraq
Restrictions under the Basel amendment joined through Law No. (13) of 2021 apply according to its scope and effective date for Iraq. Authorities shall update procedures whenever further amendments become binding.
Chapter Eleven — Circular economy, public procurement and design
Article (111) — Circular-economy roadmap
Economic, environmental and industrial bodies shall map resource-intensive sectors and viable repair, reuse, remanufacturing, recycling and industrial-symbiosis opportunities, with measurable objectives without mandating a single technology or business model.
Article (112) — Green public procurement
Procurement authorities shall progressively favour repairable, reused or recycled-content products meeting quality, total-cost and lifecycle requirements. Environmental criteria may not restrict competition without objective grounds.
Article (113) — Repairability and spare parts
Authorities may require repair information and parts for reasonable periods for specified products and prevent unjustified repair barriers, respecting legitimate safety and intellectual-property grounds and coordinating consumer, competition and intellectual-property law.
Article (114) — Recycled content
Minimum recycled-content shares may apply to specified products or public works after verifying supply, standards, performance and safety. Shares shall be periodically reviewed against markets and domestic capacity.
Article (115) — Circular facilities and industrial zones
Industrial-zone planning shall consider material, energy and shared-service exchanges. Joint sorting and treatment facilities may operate with clear legal responsibilities, tracking and no hazardous/non-hazardous mixing.
Article (116) — Innovation and regulatory trials
Competent ministries may permit time-limited trials of new circular technologies or models lacking regulatory pathways under defined scope and monitoring, without exemptions from safety, liability or international prohibitions. Safety and performance findings shall be published afterwards.
Article (117) — Environmental claims
Misleading claims such as 'recyclable', 'environmentally neutral' or 'biodegradable' are prohibited without suitable standards or evidence under Iraqi market conditions. Consumer-protection and standards bodies shall establish verification and labelling rules.
Chapter Twelve — Finance, tariffs and social inclusion
Article (118) — Financing principles
Waste management shall combine public budgets, municipal and service fees, recovered-material revenues, producer obligations, investment and development finance as needed, separating basic municipal-service financing from stream-specific producer duties.
Article (119) — Municipal waste tariffs
Charges may be imposed or amended by law or delegated local powers, based on efficient, auditable service costs, with social bands or exemptions for those unable to pay. Charging for services not actually provided is prohibited except where law permits.
Article (120) — Economic incentives
Landfill or incineration fees, incentives, deposits and quantity-based charging may be used where measurement and enforcement prevent illegal dumping. Instruments shall improve hierarchy outcomes rather than merely raise revenue.
Article (121) — Fine and compensation revenues
Fines and compensation shall follow financial laws. Inspectors' salaries or bonuses may not depend on fine proceeds. Restoration payments and guarantees may be ring-fenced solely for the relevant site or damage.
Article (122) — Legacy-site financing
Legally identifiable responsible parties shall first finance old dumps and legacy pollution. Where identification or recovery fails, budgets, the Environmental Protection Fund or development finance may be used, documenting risk priorities and intervention costs.
Article (123) — Informal material-recovery workers
Local authorities shall offer voluntary formalisation through registration, training, cooperatives, small contracts or jobs. Poverty shall not be criminalised nor livelihoods confiscated merely for informality before practical compliance routes exist.
Article (124) — Safety and dignity
Collection and sorting workers enjoy lawful labour, safety and non-discrimination rights. Public contracts shall require protective clothing, drinking water, sanitation, training and social insurance under applicable laws.
Article (125) — Small and medium enterprises
Registration, guarantees and data requirements for small reuse, repair and recycling enterprises shall match risk. Simplified low-risk licensing may not lower health or environmental standards.
Chapter Thirteen — Inspection, compliance, liability and penalties
Article (126) — Inspection powers
Authorised inspectors may enter establishments during working hours or emergencies under legal safeguards, inspect records and equipment, take samples and photographs and request information. Private dwellings require occupant consent or judicial orders where necessary.
Article (127) — Sample chain of custody
Samples and evidence shall follow documented custody, calibration and accredited-laboratory procedures. Operators may obtain results and appeal or request retesting under rules preserving admissibility and fairness.
Article (128) — Compliance orders
Authorities may warn offenders, require risk-proportionate correction plans and impose temporary measures stopping leaks or unsafe collection or transport. No grace period applies where continued activity poses imminent serious danger.
Article (129) — Administrative suspension and closure
Serious danger, repeated material breaches or operation without required licences may justify reasoned, proportionate partial suspension or temporary closure, subject to grievance and appeal, without preventing urgent action against imminent danger.
Article (130) — Intervention-cost recovery
Where responsible parties fail after notice to remove waste or treat leaks, or emergencies prevent delay, public bodies may act or contract action and recover actual costs and documented administrative expenses, without prejudice to compensation or penalties.
Article (131) — Civil liability
Those causing waste-management harm must restore conditions, undertake environmental restoration or compensate under environmental and civil law. Licences do not exempt breaches, negligence or unauthorised harm.
Article (132) — Legal-person liability
Legal persons face statutory measures, fines, confiscation and compensation. Their liability does not prevent individual criminal accountability of managers, employees or agents committing, ordering or facilitating offences.
Article (133) — Illegal dumping
Without prejudice to harsher penalties, deliberate disposal of commercial quantities of non-hazardous waste at unlicensed sites is punishable by a fine of (1,000,000) one million to (25,000,000) twenty-five million dinars, removal and acceptable restoration. Local authorities may impose lower fines for minor individual violations under their laws.
Article (134) — Unlicensed facilities
Without prejudice to harsher penalties, deliberate construction or operation of commercial treatment, landfill or recovery facilities without required licences is punishable by (10,000,000) ten million to (100,000,000) one hundred million dinars. Courts may order closure and lawful confiscation of illicit proceeds and tools.
Article (135) — Hazardous-waste offences
Deliberate unlicensed hazardous-waste transport, storage, treatment or disposal creating serious human or environmental danger is punishable by detention of one to five years and a fine of (25,000,000) twenty-five million to (250,000,000) two hundred and fifty million dinars, or either penalty. Harsher statutory penalties apply where their conditions are met.
Article (136) — Falsifying tracking documents
Deliberately falsifying movement documents, weight records, treatment certificates or origin or destination data to conceal unlawful disposal or change classification is punishable by detention up to three years and a fine of (10,000,000) ten million to (100,000,000) one hundred million dinars, or either penalty.
Article (137) — Illegal transboundary traffic
Illegal transboundary hazardous-waste traffic attracts the harsher applicable statutory and domestically implemented Basel penalties. Responsible parties shall return shipments or manage waste soundly and bear all costs and damage, as appropriate.
Article (138) — Obstructing inspection and false reporting
Deliberately obstructing authorised inspectors, unjustifiably withholding mandatory records or knowingly supplying materially false data is punishable by fines reflecting severity and repetition, without prejudice to graver forgery or evidence-tampering offences.
Article (139) — Repetition and aggravating circumstances
Aggravating circumstances include repetition within three years, organised illegal trafficking, targeting protected sites or water resources, serious injury or widespread pollution, exploiting children or untrained workers in hazardous-waste handling, or deliberately concealing incidents. Punishment does not remove restoration and compensation duties.
Article (140) — Grievance and appeal
Regulations shall establish clear, reasonably timed challenges to licensing, closure and administrative fines. Challenges do not stay urgent danger-prevention measures unless courts or authorities decide otherwise. Judicial appeal remains guaranteed.
Chapter Fourteen — Transitional and final provisions
Article (141) — Existing instructions
Environmental Protection from Municipal Waste Instructions No. (2) of 2014, Health-Institution Waste Management Instructions No. (1) of 2015 and existing hazardous-waste and related regulations continue insofar as consistent with this Law until amended or replaced.
Article (142) — Legislative consolidation
Upon enactment, municipal-solid-waste provisions shall be consolidated within this framework, taking legislative steps to prevent parallel laws governing the same services. This Law provides the comprehensive municipal, industrial, special and hazardous-waste and circular-economy framework.
Article (143) — Implementing regulations
On competent-body proposals and following consultation, the Council of Ministers shall issue implementing regulations within twelve months of publication. Ministers may issue instructions within their powers without changing core obligations or creating offences or penalties absent legislation.
Article (144) — Priority regulations
First-year priorities are waste classification and coding, electronic registers and tracking, carrier and facility licences, landfill standards, producer responsibility, electrical waste, batteries, oils, tyres, hazardous waste, and data and reporting standards.
Article (145) — Compliance period
Existing licensed facilities shall have up to eighteen months for technically investment-dependent requirements, extendable once by reasoned decision for up to twelve months upon funded, phased plans. No extension applies to imminent-danger breaches.
Article (146) — Generator and operator registration
Within twelve months, authorities shall complete major-generator, carrier, facility, landfill and dump databases, issue uniform identifiers and adopt electronic registration with temporary paper alternatives in digitally underserved areas.
Article (147) — Non-compliant landfill programme
Within eighteen months, local authorities and the Ministry shall classify unapproved sites and establish risk-based closure, rehabilitation and replacement programmes, publishing annual progress. No new unlicensed sites may open during transition.
Article (148) — Implementation financial plan
With the first draft budget after national-plan completion, the Council of Ministers shall submit a financial statement to Parliament identifying legislative and institutional priority costs, priority investments and financing from current resources, charges, producer obligations and investment. This Law itself creates no open-ended appropriation.
Article (149) — Repeal and conflict
Expressly conflicting provisions are repealed to the extent of conflict; regulatory references shall be updated when replacements issue. This does not repeal general environmental, health, labour, local-administration or nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological-control laws.
Article (150) — Commencement
This Law takes effect ninety days after Official Gazette publication, except obligations with specific statutory or regulatory transition periods.
Statement of reasons
This Law is enacted to protect health and the environment from unsound waste and hazardous-substance management; guarantee healthy environmental conditions; resolve fragmented collection, transport, treatment and disposal rules; advance prevention, reuse, recycling and circular economy; regulate producers and special streams; improve hazardous-waste tracking and compliance with Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata obligations binding on Iraq; and allocate federal, regional, governorate, Baghdad and municipal responsibilities consistently with the Constitution and decentralisation.
Explanatory memorandum
1. Why a framework broader than municipal waste alone?
Municipal waste is most visible but is not the sole risk or economic-loss source. The 2025 report records 8.1 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste plus hazardous municipal collections; industrial, healthcare, electronic, oil, battery and tyre streams extend beyond household-service logic. Municipal-only legislation leaves gaps and encourages shifting problems between streams.
2. Why no new authority?
The central problems are overlapping roles and weak data, tracking and facilities, rather than absence of a new institution. The proposal confirms Ministry environmental-standard and hazardous-waste duties, local service responsibilities and existing-council coordination, reducing establishment costs and duplicate powers and clarifying accountability.
3. What does circular economy mean here?
The proposal converts the term into prevention, preparation for reuse, by-product and end-of-waste criteria, green procurement, repairability, viable recycled content and producer responsibility. Incineration is not recycling, and disguised disposal cannot count as recovery merely because marginal financial value exists.
4. Energy recovery's position
Energy recovery follows prevention, reuse and recycling. Long-term thermal facilities built before reliable separation and data systems could create waste-supply commitments that crowd out recycling. Licensing therefore requires lifecycle, energy, efficiency, emissions and ash-management assessment.
5. Hazardous substances and waste
The proposal builds on existing Ministry transport permits, adding uniform movement codes, electronic tracking and clear generator, carrier and recipient duties. Radioactive waste remains technically regulated by the National Nuclear, Radiological, Chemical and Biological Regulatory Authority under Law No. (1) of 2024 to avoid overlap.
6. Extended producer responsibility
Producer responsibility prevents municipalities and citizens alone bearing costly or hazardous post-consumer product burdens. It does not immediately apply to everything: stream and market studies, producer registers, realistic targets, financial and technical audits and equal domestic/imported treatment precede application to electronics, batteries, tyres, oils, packaging and other streams.
7. Social justice and informal workers
Informal recovery exists, and immediate exclusion may deepen concealment and poverty. The proposal requires voluntary inclusion through registration, training, cooperatives, small contracts and occupational safety while prohibiting hazardous child labour.
Legislative alignment
| Legislation or instrument | Relationship to proposal | Required action |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Protection and Improvement Law No. (27) of 2009 | General principles, hazardous-material and waste registers and environmental penalties. | Remains the general reference until newer environmental legislation replaces it; only conflicting provisions are amended or repealed at commencement. |
| Environmental Protection from Municipal Waste Instructions No. (2) of 2014 | Existing sectoral detail. | Continue transitionally before replacement with aligned regulations. |
| Health-Institution Waste Management Instructions No. (1) of 2015 | Regulate a specialised healthcare stream. | Health and environmental ministries preserve and update technical rules within the healthcare-waste chapter. |
| Hazardous-waste instructions of 2015 and transport-permit practice | Practical storage, transport and approval foundation. | Upgrade to uniform electronic source-to-treatment movement tracking. |
| National Nuclear, Radiological, Chemical and Biological Regulatory Authority Law No. (1) of 2024 | Governs radioactive waste among other matters. | Exclude radioactive-waste technical regulation while coordinating multi-hazard sites. |
| Municipal Solid Waste Management Bill first read on 9 September 2026 | Existing municipal-focused parliamentary pathway. | Consolidate into comprehensive legislation or legislatively resolve one pathway to avoid duplication. |
| Amended Governorates Not Incorporated into a Region Law No. (21) of 2008 | Decentralisation and local-function framework. | Interpret local services, contracts and fees consistently with it and the Constitution. |
Transitional provisions and implementation requirements
Success depends on sequencing rather than numerous day-one obligations. Core principles and prohibitions commence separately from digital systems, facilities and producer-responsibility arrangements requiring time and data.
| Period after commencement | Mandatory action |
|---|---|
| Within 6 months | Begin standardising waste codes, inventorying generators and facilities, and designing national registers and tracking. |
| Within 12 months | Issue core regulations, adopt or update national strategy, and launch covered operator and producer registration. |
| Within 18 months | Update local plans, classify non-compliant landfills and prepare existing-facility compliance plans. |
| Within 24–36 months | Launch priority producer-responsibility systems after establishing baselines, capacity and reception points. |
| Periodically | Annual data reports, five-year national-plan reviews and market- and outcome-based regulatory target reviews. |
Financial and operational impact
Reliable national costs require updated facilities, vehicle and contract inventories, governorate waste-composition studies, and defined sites, technologies, prices and design lives. The proposal avoids false capital-cost precision and requires a financial implementation statement tied to national planning.
| Impact item | Nature | Financing method |
|---|---|---|
| National data and tracking system | Digital establishment and inter-agency integration, followed by operation and maintenance. | Existing-body budgets and possible technical assistance; reuse government platforms where feasible. |
| Collection and equipment expansion | Ongoing local capital and operating costs. | Local budgets, fair service charges and performance contracts, subsidising gaps that cannot socially be recovered. |
| Sorting, recycling and treatment | Capital and operating costs vary substantially by technology and scale. | Public, private or partnership investment after competition and feasibility studies, without quantity guarantees undermining the waste hierarchy. |
| Sanitary landfill and dump closure | Capital costs and long-term closure and monitoring guarantees. | Local/federal budgets according to jurisdiction, disposal charges and operator financial security. |
| Producer responsibility | Funding ring-fenced for particular streams. | Producer and importer contributions based on net costs and independent audits, rather than general municipal budgets. |
| Contaminated or orphan sites | Potentially high and unpredictable costs. | Responsible parties first; where recovery fails, environmental-fund or budget mechanisms by risk priority. |
Implementation also requires laboratories, inspection capacity, training and evidence custody systems, using existing ministries, directorates, Baghdad Municipality, municipalities and health bodies rather than a new independent apparatus. Electronic registers and uniform movement documents can reduce medium-term verification and fraud costs if genuinely interoperable rather than separate platforms.
Brief international comparison
The EU Waste Framework Directive legally prioritises prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery and disposal, with general producer-responsibility, role-allocation and data requirements. The proposal draws on this structure without copying EU quantitative targets or institutions.
Egypt adopted Waste Management Regulation Law No. (202) of 2020 and implementing regulations as a comprehensive framework. Comparison shows the value of unified licensing, planning, responsibilities and waste-stream rules, adapted to Iraq's decentralised constitutional system and shared powers.
Hazardous-waste governance rests not only on national comparisons but on Basel's prior informed consent and environmentally sound management, Stockholm's persistent-organic-pollutant duties, Minamata's mercury provisions and Rotterdam's internationally traded hazardous-chemical and pesticide requirements.
Sources and references
- Constitution of the Republic of Iraq 2005 — Supreme Judicial Council.
- Environmental Protection and Improvement Law No. (27) of 2009 — legislative reference, with Ministry of Justice confirmation of continuing application.
- Ministry of Environment — Environmental legislation, including municipal, hazardous and healthcare-waste instructions.
- Ministry of Environment — Environmental approval for hazardous-waste transport and movement-document and licensing requirements.
- Environmental Protection and Improvement Strategy of the Republic of Iraq 2024–2030 — Ministry of Environment.
- Iraq Environmental Statistics — Municipal Services Sector 2025 — Statistics and Geographic Information Systems Authority.
- Iraqi Council of Representatives — Session (17) decisions and recommendations, 9 September 2026: first reading of the Municipal Solid Waste Management Bill.
- Iraqi Council of Representatives — Laws search database, including Basel Amendment Accession Law No. (13) of 2021.
- Ministry of Justice — National Nuclear, Radiological, Chemical and Biological Regulatory Authority Law No. (1) of 2024.
- Basel Convention — Parties: Iraq acceded on 2 May 2011; entry into force on 31 July 2011.
- Rotterdam Convention — Parties: Iraq acceded on 18 April 2017.
- United Nations — Iraq's Stockholm Convention accession on 8 March 2016.
- United Nations — Iraq's Minamata Convention ratification on 16 September 2021.
- European Union — Consolidated Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC: waste hierarchy and extended producer responsibility.
- Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency — Waste Management Regulation Law No. 202 of 2020 and implementing regulations.
Last live-source verification date: 7 October 2026. Sources document context and diagnosis; draft articles are independently formulated legislative provisions without citations inside each Article.