Principles of Pollution Prevention

For pollution prevention to have a significant impact on any company, it must be applied on a regular and dedicated basis. Occasional programs only have local 

The book Green Profits A Manager s Handbook for ISO 14001 and Pollution Prevention (N. P. Cheremisinoff and A. Bendavid-Val, Butterworth-Heinemann, Mass., 2001) provides a step-by-step approach to developing pollution prevention programs in an organization. In this section we summarize the basic approach for the reader, but refer you to the above publication for further details and examples. 

All pollution prevention programs start the same - with an audit. The objective of an audit is to gather information aimed at developing a baseline description of the operations. Once we understand how much the costs of compliance to air and other pollution media are, then we can apply engineering tools and management practices to reduce these costs. 

A P2 audit differs from most other types of audits because it makes use of a dual benchmarking approach namely, it uses both technical (environmental performance) and financial performance as its basis for making corrective actions. The status quo most often serves as the benchmark, though other standards certainly can be devised. A P2 audit can also affect non-environmental issues. The types of corrective actions can affect other types of wastes, energy, occupational safety, product quality, and worker productivity. 

The objectives of the audit are first to develop a baseline of the environmental performance of the facility, and then to assess one or more corrective actions (P2 activities) with attractive economics which improve environmental performance. 

---

Prevention versus Control Principles of pollution prevention How pollution prevention works Pollution prevention auditing Comparing P2 to control options... 

Does the process satisfy the principles of pollution prevention and waste minimization On the basis of the information provided by the vendor, scrubbed gases and solids are the only wastes produced other than arsenic. On the basis of the information provided by the vendor, scrubbed gases and metal are the only wastes produced other than arsenic. Yes. Wastes are metal, scrubbed offgases, arsenic residues, and contaminated filter media. The process satisfies the principles of pollution prevention. Although the process results in a large amount, relatively speaking, of secondary wastes, the amount is not excessive. 

The Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) has developed a series of methods, databases, and predictive models to help in evaluating what happens to chemicals when they are used and released into the environment. These tools are intended to be used by scientists and engineers famihar with exposure assessment principles. 

The use of pollution-prevention principles on the home front clearly does not involve the use of high-technology equipment or major lifestyle changes success is only dependent upon active and willing public participation. All can help to make a difference. 

In the United States, companies are required to submit premanufacture notice to the U.S. EPA prior to introducing new chemicals to commerce. To encourage the application of pollution prevention principles and the development of inherently low hazard new chemicals, the U.S. EPA has instituted a pollution prevention (P2) framework as part of its Sustainable Futures program (U.S. EPA, 2004c). As part of the program, training and support are provided to companies in the evaluation of new chemicals, with limited available information, using the U.S. EPA s hazard... 

In reading over this chapter, glance back at Chapter 6. Many of the principles covered here complement the pollution prevention audit, and will assist you in developing approaches to assessing prevention versus control options. 

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 ... 

List die advantages of applying tlie pollution prevention principle to an... 

Green Chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical processes. This non-regulatory approach for pollution prevention occupies a pivotal position in the management of hazardous substances and has been quite successful as evidenced, for example, in the United States by the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. ... 

There are a variety of process safety risks one needs to assess with chemical processes. In general, these risks will lead to an evaluation of the potential for the process to have precipitous changes in temperature and or pressure that lead to secondary events such as detonations, explosions, over pressurizations, fires, and so forth. The most cost-effective way of avoiding these sorts of risks is through the adoption of inherent safety principles. Inherent safety principles are very similar to and complementary to pollution prevention principles, where one attempts to use a hierarchy of approaches to avoid and/or reduce the risk of an adverse event. The reader is referred elsewhere to a more complete treatment of this important area of process design. ... 

---