Partly due to failed approaches in nuclear waste (NW) governance, years of high levels of attention have resulted in novel, more participatory avenues in Switzerland and other countries. What can be said about the case of conventional hazardous waste (CHW) from households? What technical and legal aspects are similar to or different from those of the NW domain? How does the public perceive CHW and its handling? We address these (so far) open questions in this study that comprises multiple methodological approaches. We combine a technical and system assessment with a societal (perception) assessment, based on a representative survey (N = 3,082) among the German-speaking population of Switzerland. We draw some conclusions for a possible way forward in hazardous waste policy and governance.

We find a remarkable disparity between technical analysis and public perception. The community should discuss whether the current NW management is forward-looking and may serve as a model for CHW. For CHW, the multiplicity of agents and the heterogeneity of substances may make the situation too complex, non-transparent, and thus less salient in the public perception. Paradoxically, the ubiquity of conventional waste, traditional community landfills, and everyday handling of some waste may make it appear less alarming than NW.

部分由于核废料（NW）治理方法失败，多年来的高度关注已在瑞士和其他国家/地区建立了新颖，更具参与性的途径。对于来自家庭的常规危险废物（CHW），该怎么说呢？哪些技术和法律方面与NW领域相似或不同？公众如何看待CHW及其处理方式？我们在本研究中解决了这些（到目前为止）未解决的问题，其中包括多种方法论方法。我们根据对瑞士德语国家人口的代表性调查（N = 3,082），将技术和系统评估与社会（感知）评估相结合。我们得出了一些结论，为危险废物政策和治理的发展提供了可能。

我们发现技术分析与公众认知之间存在显着差异。社区应该讨论当前的NW管理是否具有前瞻性，并可以作为CHW的模型。对CHW而言，多种媒介和物质的异质性可能会使情况变得过于复杂，不透明，从而使公众的认识不那么突出。矛盾的是，常规废物，传统社区垃圾填埋场的普遍存在以及日常处理某些废物可能使它看上去不像西北地区那么令人担忧。