Sustainable Development and Society - GSA

Sustainable Development and Society
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established a new pollution prevention
policy advocating source reduction as a
more desirable method of reducing
pollution than waste management and
pollution control.
The aim of the pollution prevention policy
was to reduce the volume and toxicity of
wastes at the source. In an attempt to
define the concept of pollution prevention,
the EPA published its Pollution Prevention
Statement in the Federal Register,
demonstrating “a preventive program to
reduce or eliminate the generation of
potentially harmful pollutants.” 1 While the
definition was broad in scope, for the EPA,
pollution prevention represented:
1. the reduction or elimination of pollutant
discharges to the air, water or land;
2. reducing the quantity and/or toxicity of
pollutants generated by production
processes through source reduction,
waste minimization, and process
modifications;
3. eliminating pollutants by substituting
non-polluting chemicals or products (e.g.,
material substitution, changes in product
specifications); and,
4. recycling of waste materials (e.g.,
reuse, reclamation).
The pollution prevention model is presented
here as a method that recognizes source
reduction as the most important tier in the
hierarchy of environmental management.
This model shifts the focus from hazard
control at the end of discharge pipes to
reducing or eliminating exposures at the
front end of the process by changing the
raw material inputs through source
reduction. Pollution prevention, a valuable
strategy for protecting community
environmental health, can be effective in
the work environment as well, but only when
occupational and environmental risks are
considered simultaneously.
The pollution prevention or “P2” approach
encompasses several forms of prevention,
including source reduction, waste
reduction, waste minimization; toxics use
reduction, and clean or cleaner production.
These approaches emphasize the
prevention of environmental damage before
it occurs, focusing attention on the
processes that create the waste prior to
being emitted into the environment.
Preventive strategies focus on identifying
potential harm or hazard, and on reducing
or eliminating the use of materials or
processes that could cause harm, injury or
damage to the environment and thus to the
general population. Some environmentalists
refer to a “hierarchy of prevention” 2 with the
ultimate goal being to change our activities.
In reverse order:
• Change in Activities: reducing
material consumption, and changing to
less polluting activities.
• Products: creating products that
work better and last longer.
• Material usage: reducing material
inputs and changing to less toxic
materials.
• Production processes: improving
efficiency and achieving cleaner
technology, better control, improved
materials handling, etc. 3
All four levels of the above hierarchy of
prevention can represent primary
prevention by promoting ways to reduce or
eliminate the hazardous condition that is
causing the pollution. Changing our
activities in these ways requires a change in
both social and economic policies and
would lead us toward the ultimate goal of
sustainable economic growth and
development. By promoting changes in the
technology and materials of production, in
industrial processes and operations, and in
attitudes, the “prevention paradigm”
provides us with the means to achieve the
desired compatibility between