Module 14A
Pollution Prevention
Here is about as good an introduction to pollution prevention as I know of: paragraphs a.) Findings and b) Policy of the Pollution Prevention Act . This act did not set any regulations to control details about contaminants or pollution, but rather directed the EPA to look at source reduction and other methods of reducing waste. It also gave EPA some funding for research and grants to that end. A more definite result was that the President issued some executive orders. These are not laws that directly affect business or industry, but orders that direct federal agencies regarding their own practices. The most prominent order was for the government itself to reduce its waste generation by 50% in a few years. The federal government, through its purchasing and contracting arrangements, has dictated that many private businesses follow similar procedures, hence the executive order has an indirect effect on some private businesses.
One practical outcome of the P2 Act was the EPA funded an "Office" (which is a major department), the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, which has accumulated information and several programs to advocate "source reduction" and recycling. (OPPT homepage). We will use their site a little later.
Because the source reduction must be specific to the particular process, details vary considerably between industries and plants. Here is a checklist of major categories of P2 techniques:
Purchasing and Inventory Controls: Require a higher level supervisor to approve purchase of hazardous and toxic chemicals. Order smaller quantities and keep inventory to a minimum. Reduce the number of chemicals and brand names to reduce time on the shelf. Use just-in-time purchasing. Use colored labels for troublesome chemicals, a different color for preferred chemicals.
Improved Housekeeping: Stop leaks and drips, stop overfills, check control devices often.
Production/Process Modifications: (see article below.)
Product Substitution and Reformulation: Substitute a non-hazardous chemical, demand reformulation from suppliers to reduce or remove hazardous constituents
Waste Segregation: Many waste steams are mixtures of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. Separate the non-hazardous to reduce the volume of hazardous.
New use and Reuse: Can the material be used for something else or transferred to another company or department. Repaired or cleaned, then reused?
Recycling: many products can now be recycled. For example automobile batteries used to be a troublesome hazardous waste. Now they can be sold for recycling. Many oils and solvents can be recycled, either on site or by contractors.
A mnemonic often heard (it's on my plastic coffee cup) is: REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE.
Although it's beyond the scope of this course, the management tools of Total Quality Management (TQM) and ISO 9000 (Quality Management) introduce the concept of "eliminate or reduce non-value added steps" in the production process. Almost all steps that generate waste are "non-value added" steps that need to be reduced or eliminated as part of a general quality philosophy.
Here's an interesting article about the world not beating a path to a better mousetrap When Pollution Prevention Meets the Bottom Line. You will find the article in the Special Documents section of the Course Documents on Blackboard. There will be some quiz questions on it.
For your discussion and homework, go to the Blackboard Course Documents, Special Documents, EPA Sector Notebooks. Pick one of the industry sectors and open the pdf file with the notebook. For each sector notebook, go to the index and look for the section "Pollution Prevention Opportunities." That section is 3 to 5 pages, the entire notebook runs 80 to 120 pages but you don't have to read the whole thing. Just look at the the "opportunity" that seems interesting to you and read it, then look back through the notebook to understand how that opportunity came about and why it is important. Then write two or three paragraphs about the opportunity. Post that to the Discussion Board. Then look at the submission of at least two of the other students and comment on their pollution prevention opportunities.
Pollution Prevention Quiz.