Pollution Prevention Act

The PPA of 1990 requires the ERA to establish an Office of Pollution Prevention, develop and coordinate a pollution prevention strategy, and develop source reduction models. In addition to authorizing data collection on pollution prevention, the Act requires owners and operators of manufacturing facilities to report annually on source reduction and recycling activities. 

The PPA states that it is the policy of the United States that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source whenever feasible pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe manner, whenever feasible pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible and disposal or other release 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT A PRACTICAL APPROACH 

Source reduction is the preferred strategy for environmental protection because it is often cost-effective offers industry substantial savings in reduced raw materials, pollution control costs, and liability costs reduces risks to workers and reduces risk to the environment and public health. The Act was meant to increase interest in source reduction and encourage adoption of cost-effective source reduction practices. 

PPA reqnires these reports as part of the TRI to include information about the facility s efforts in source reduction and recycling. Specifically, reports must include 

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A number of states such as New Jersey have passed into law the "Pollution Prevention Act" which requires industry to reduce and eventually eliminate toxic waste in the 1990s (295). Cooperation between industry government academia and private environmental groups to implement these pollution prevention acts have begun in earnest (296—302). 

Besides the above federal laws, all 50 U.S. states have also passed environmental laws. As previously mentioned, both the United States and the state of New Jersey have passed Pollution Prevention Acts (295). 

There are profound opportunities for both industiy and the individual to prevent the generation of waste indeed, pollution prevention is today primarily stimulated by economics, legislation, liabihty concerns, and the enhanced environmental benefit of managing waste at the source. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 has estabhshed pollution prevention as a national policy, declaring that waste should be prevented or reduced at the source wherever feasible, while pollu-... 

Formal pollution prevention programs (Pollution Prevention Act)... 

As discussed in the introduction, the hierarchy set forth by the USEPA in the Pollution Prevention Act establishes an order to which waste-management activities should be employed to reduce the quantity of waste generated. The preferred method is source reduction, as indicated in Fig. 25-1. This approach actually precedes traditional waste management by addressing the source of the problem prior to its occurrence. 

Waste minimization generally considers all of the methods in the EPA hierarchy (except for disposal) appropriate to reduce the volume or quantity of waste requiring dispos (i.e., source reduction). The definition oi source reduction as applied in the Pollution Prevention Act, however, is any practice that reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream... 

In the fall of 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (10). This act established a nahonal policy that (11) ... 

This example leads us to a very important observation. While pollution prevention may seem like the obvious thing to do, it is not always cost effective, and investments into re-engineering processes must be carefully scrutinized. In fact, in this example, we see environmental legislation that actually discourages investments into green technologies, which in itself is contrary to national policy under the Pollution Prevention Act. 

The remaining Sections e.xainine tluce important topics as tliey relate to the subject title of tliis book. Section 2.7 reviews the details of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency s (USEPA s) Risk Management Program while Section 2.8 provides information on the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). The chapter continues with a short Section (2.9) on potential environmental violations and then concludes with a Section (2.10) on tlic Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. 

Anotlier act that lias Iiad a major impact on tlie general area of healtli, safety and accident management is tlie Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. The major tlieme of the act was to provide an importance to reduce tlie generation of wastes/pollutants/cheniicals tliat can create healtli, safety and accident management problems. Details of the act are provided later. 

Signed into law in November 1990, tlie Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 is the most important regulation regarding pollution prevention. The act establishes pollution prevention as a national objective and notes tliat ... 

Section 6607(c) of the Pollution Prevention Act provides enforcement autliority under Title 111 of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (also known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act). Civil, administrative, and criminal penalties are autliorized for non-compliance against a facility, USEPA, a Governor, or a SERC. The Act requires USEPA to... 

The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 calls on companies to disclose and report a great deal about tlieir operations. Widespread inspections to determine compliance would be very expensive. It also would severely strain tlie govermnent s manpower. 

In the United States, several federal programmes and focused regulations that incorporate elements of green chemistry have been put into place to reduce risks. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 has clearly stated that pollution prevention at the source is the highest and most desired level of environmental protection. ... 

U.S. EPA, Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, United States Code Title 42, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC, available at http //www.epa.gov/p2/pubs/p2policy/actl990.htm, October 2006. 

The Pollution Prevention Act of 199027 requires facilities to report information about the management of Toxic Relief Inventory (TRI) chemicals in waste and efforts made to eliminate or reduce those quantities. The data summarized in Table 3.38 cover a four-year period and is meant to provide a basic understanding of the quantities of waste handled by the industry, the methods typically used to manage this waste, and recent trends in these methods.1 TRI waste management data can be used to assess trends in source reduction within individual industries and facilities, and for specific TRI chemicals. This information could then be used as a tool in identifying opportunities for pollution prevention compliance assistance activities. 

Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 makes it the national policy of the United States to reduce or eliminate the generation of waste at the source whenever feasible and directs the EPA to undertake a multimedia program of information collection, technology transfer, and financial assistance to the states to implement this policy and to promote the use of source reduction techniques. 

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