Pollution prevention: Avoiding the need to manage wastes

摘要

Today's industrial processes generate many types of waste products that constitute risks to human health and the surrounding environment. While proper waste management procedures can lower this risk, prevention of the waste's generation will eliminate the risk. For this reason, the United States has established pollution prevention as a national objective, through the passage of its Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. Pollution prevention involves a wide range of approaches, all with the same objective: to reduce or eliminate the creation of waste at its source; in other words, within the process that generates it. This objective, so beneficial to the environment, also coincides with industrial economic interests. Pollution prevention measures and greater process efficiency go hand in hand, and typically result in lower operating costs as well as greatly reduced waste management expenses. The US Environmental Protection Agency defines pollution prevention as the maximum feasible reduction of all wastes generated at production sites. This objective is accomplished largely through source reduction and reuse of input materials during production.