Toxic waste has accumulated in industrial history since the beginning of mining activity. A significant increase in such waste can be linked in the twentieth century to the rapid development of chemical synthesis, and then to the development of nuclear energy. Using the example of the Basel chemical industry, one can follow the methods for the elimination of hazardous waste in Switzerland. It leads from the discharge into rivers and the sea, to the disposal in gravel and clay pits. Since the end of the 20th century, these landfills are cleaned up one after the other at high cost, due to their environmental risk. Even the landfill Teuftal (Canton of Bern), which has been planned as a final repository, offers no long-term guarantee against pollution of surface and groundwater and will eventually have to be evacuated. The realization of repositories for radioactive waste proves to be difficult and uncertain. Examples in Germany and abroad show that the recovery of waste from so-called final repositories intended for incidents already fails in the planning phase due to the resistance of the operators. Finally, the only sustainable strategy is to avoid the production of highly toxic waste.