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Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology EN012I-591 July 26, 2001 15:54

Pollution Prevention from Chemical Processes 599

FIGURE 8 Waste generation versus business control.

A second example is the joint EPA/DuPont Chambers VI. THE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Works Waste Minimization Project, which resulted in a
savings of $15 million per year for only $6.3 million in After participating in over 75 waste reduction or treatment
capital investment and led to a 52% reduction in waste programs, one thing has become clear—there is a recipe
generation. for success. We have found that successful pollution pre-
The DuPont Company has also instituted a corporate vention programs are characterized by the following four
Environmental Excellence Award program. Of the typical success factors:
550 submissions per year, approximately 70 pass the first
screening and 12 are finally selected as winners. For the 1. Commitment by business leadership to support
years1994–1996,morethan$200millionperyearpositive change and provide resources.
return and $320 million in avoided capital expenditures 2. Early involvement of all stakeholders in the process.
was realized for the 210 programs that passed the first 3. Quick definition of the cost for end-of-pipe treatment,
screening. which subsequently becomes the incentive for more
The fifth main driver for pollution prevention, which cost-effective pollution prevention solutions.
is growing in importance, is sustainability, i.e., building a 4. Definition and implementation of pollution
sustainable global economy or an economy that the planet prevention engineering practices and technologies
is capable of supporting indefinitely. Pollution prevention that improve the business’ bottom line.
is one of three ways that a company can move toward sus-
tainability. A second way is product stewardship, where a The “path to pollution prevention” chart shown in Fig. 10
manufactured product has minimal impact on the environ- brings together the essential ingredients for a success-
ment during the full manufacturing life cycle. A third step ful pollution prevention program, whether large or small.
toward sustainability is through clean technology, that is, The core pollution prevention program or methodology
technology which has a minimum impact on the environ- is shown in the center column, and consists of three
ment. Examples include (1) avoiding the use and manu- phases: the chartering phase, assessment phase, and im-
factureoftoxic,persistent,orbioaccumulativecompounds plementation phase. The other boxes in Fig. 10 (shown
and (2) replacing high-temperature and high-pressure pro- with dotted lines) outline supporting information, tools,
cesses with biotechnology routes which can manufacture and activities that are essential to the success of the pro-
products at ambient conditions. gram. In many ways, these help to expedite the completion