Portugal's export amount of hazardous waste is increasing. More than 10 years ago, waste co-incineration in cement kilns was proposed in Portugal for technical and economic reasons amid administrative willingness to manage hazardous waste domestically. However, this waste project has still not been realized owing to local public resistance (the so-called NIMBY syndrome). We focus attention on the long-term resistance, and the following points are established through analysis: (i) public participation was left out of the project at the initial stage, so public confidence in government ability has been declining, (ii) public antipathy results from emotive stimulation and/or mental fears rather than scientific evidence, and (iii) indirect socio-economic factors in the region proposed for a hazardous waste facility are completely excluded from the project scope. The presented case study suggests that public acceptability is quite important in implementing hazardous waste management without delay. Therefore, engineers, researchers and planners in hazardous waste management should be aware that a report addressing only technical performance is less beneficial than a comprehensive report for putting a management tool into industrial practice. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.