Pollution prevention follow

The application of waste-management practices in the United States has recently moved toward securing a new pollution prevention ethic. The performance of pollution prevention assessments and their subsequent implementation will encourage increased activity into methods that 1 further aid in the reduction of hazardous wastes. One of the most important and propitious consequences of the pollution-prevention movement will be the development of life-cycle design and standardized hfe-cycle cost-accounting procedures. These two consequences are briefly discussed in the two paragraphs that follow. Additional information is provided in a later subsection. 

Assessment Phase The assessment phase aims to collect data needed to identify and analyze pollution-prevention opportunities. Assessment of the facility s waste-reduction needs includes the examination of hazardous waste streams, process operations, and the identification of techniques that often promise the reduction of waste generation. Information is often derived from obsei vations made during a facihty walk-through, interviews with employees (e.g., operators, line workers), and review of site or regulatory records. One professional organization suggests the following information sources be reviewed, as available (Ref. 7) ... 

Barriers to Pollution Prevention ( The Dirty Dozen ) There are numerous reasons why more businesses are not reducing the wastes they generate. The following dirty dozen are common disincentives ... 

The main problem with the traditional type of economic analysis is that it is difficult—nay, in some cases impossible—to quantify some of the not-so-obvious economic merits of a pollution-prevention program. Several considerations have just recently surfaced as factors that need to be taken into account in any meaningful economic analysis of a pollution-prevention effort. What follows is a summary listing of these considerations, most which have been detailed earher. 

Based on the above three areas of potential concern, a plethora of waste reduction ac tivities can be performed at home or in an office environment. One can easily note the similarities between these activities and those pollution-prevention activities performed in industry. The following few exampes are identified by categoiy according to this notation (Ref. 21) ... 

Implementation of cleaner production processes and pollution prevention measures can yield both economic and environmental benefits. The primary treatment technologies afforded to this manufacturing include the following ... 

Implementation of cleaner production processes and pollution prevention measures can yield both economic and environmental benefits. The following production-related targets can be achieved by measures such as those described above. The numbers relate to the production processes before the addition of pollution control measures. In sulfuric acid plants that use the double-contact, double absorption process, emissions levels of 2 to 4 kilograms of sulfur dioxide... 

Table 8 provides a list of pollution prevention practices for reducing air emissions in mini steel mills. Standard treatment technologies for air emissions are as follows. Dust emission control technologies include cyclones, baghouses, and ESPs. Scrubbers are used to control acid mists. 

The following references will help you develop techniques for applying pollution prevention audits. Use the examples in Chapter 2 as a basis to tailor audit questions and to focus on areas of opportunities. Finally, Chapter 8 will help you in developing the tools needed to assess the financial attractiveness of the pollution prevention opportunities you identify. 

Wastewater Treatment Engineering Bureau of Land Water Quality Last update 03/12/01. Wastewater Treatment Engineering, Technieal Assistance and Pollution Prevention. Waste Treatment Go to the following web site http //janus.state.me.us/dep/blwq/engin.htm. 

I highly recommend you follow the methodology of McHugh (McHugh, R.T., The Economics of Waste Minimization, McGraw-Hill Book Publishers, 1990). McHugh defines four tiers of potential costs, which the author applies to pollution prevention, but the principles and methodology are universal ... 

The following are good references to obtain pollution prevention information on, many of which cover water management and treatment practices. With the exception of r erence 12, they can all be obtained through the U.S. EPA at minimal to no cost . 

Emerson Electric, a manufacturer of power tools, implemented a Waste and Energy Management Program to identify opportunities for pollution prevention. An audit resulted in the following actions5 ... 

Pollution prevention in the U.S., whether through source material reduction/reuse, or waste recycling, is practiced in various sectors of the nonferrous metals industry. Pollution prevention techniques and processes currently used by the nonferrous metals industry can be grouped into the following general categories1 2 3 4 ... 

The following pollution prevention and cleaner production alternatives are recommended by the Paints and Coatings Resource Center of U.S. EPA15 ... 

The factors are discussed which lead to the formation of environmental regulations in the United States, following the growing realisation over the last 150 years of the environmental impact of the new chemicals which were being developed. Initiatives for new regulations often come from the public, and their concerns at the time, particularly in relation to pollution prevention, air quality, and the protection of children s health. Current environmental regulations are discussed along with their impact on industrial research and development. Future trends are forecast to be related to air quality, children s health, and pollution prevention. 11 refs. 

A pollution prevention or waste minimization program usually consists of the following [79] ... 

The turn-of-the-century architect and planner Daniel Burnham is remembered for his famous quotation, Make no little plans they lack the fire to excite men s minds. Gender aside, Burnham was speaking for a revolutionary vision. The pollution prevention movement should more boldly state a vision and goals for the next century. The plans for green chemistry and green solvents are not little, and in the pages that follow we can readily see that the response of scientists has been great. 

Use of the term pollution prevention is common in the United States, but is actually one of many nearly synonymous terms, which include the following ... 

After participating in over 75 waste reduction or treatment programs, one thing has become clear—there is a recipe for success. We have found that successful pollution prevention programs are characterized by the following four success factors ... 

The best pollution prevention options cannot be implemented unless these are identified. To uncover the best options, each waste stream analysis should follow four steps ... 

The pollution prevention program assessed 15 manufacturing processes and attained the following results ... 

Source reduction is pollution prevention, which reduces the toxicity and/ or quantity of hazardous material at the source. Therefore, it is fundamentally different from the pollution management practices of recycling, treatment and disposal. Because waste minimization and source reduction have been defined in various ways, the following are considered not to be source reduction [16,17, 20-23,26,36,44] ... 

As indicated previously, source reduction is pollution prevention in contrast to practices that manage hazardous waste after it has been generated. As such, source reduction requires a fundamentally different approach. Successful source reduction depends partly on technological change. Source reduction techniques vary greatly from one industry to another. Approaches to source reduction are in four major categories that follow the techniques presented in Fig. 3. They include the following [1,14,20-23,25] ... 

General rules for P2 follow the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 13101-13109) and are applicable to any manufacturing activity. This act clearly identifies the waste management hierarchy, and we list them in Table 6.1 for completeness. The P2 Hierarchy specific to a chemical process is derived from this set of principles. 

There are profound opportunities for both industry and the individual to prevent the generation of waste indeed, pollution prevention is today primarily stimulated by economics, legislation, liability concerns, and the enhanced environmental benefit of managing waste at the source. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 established pollution prevention as a national policy, declaring that waste should be prevented or reduced at the source wherever feasible, while pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe manner (Ref. 1). The EPA s policy establishes the following hierarchy of waste management ... 

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