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Sustainable Industrial Design and Waste Management
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• Improve companies performance.
• Improve the local and international market competitiveness.
• Help comply with environmental protection regulations.
On a broader scale, cleaner production can help alleviate the serious and
increasing problems of air and water pollution, ozone depletion, global warm-
ing, landscape degradation, solid and liquid wastes, resource depletion, acidi-
fication of the natural and built environment, visual pollution, and reduced
bio-diversity.

2.4 Obstacles to Cleaner Production and Solutions

An industrial program in education must precede a successful reuse/recy-
cling program by acquainting plant personnel with the potential value con-
tained in the waste. Detailed qualitative analysis of wastes should be made
available over relatively long periods of time (one year).
Establishing another industry correlating as much industrial wastes as
possible with some other additives to produce a good quality product is the
challenging point because industrial wastes vary in quality and quantity
from time to time according to changes of products’ types and amounts.
To overcome these obstacles, a government/industrial development agency
assistance would be helpful in obtaining agreement for locating plants of
these types with all the necessary licenses and support. In fact, the newly
established industries based on industrial waste offer one of the most prom-
ising long-term solutions to today’s environmental pollution problems as
well as to many future industrial economic problems as a result of any damage
that might occur.
Waste treatment may cost more than an establishing industrial plant
based on waste as a raw material. This will lead to economic stability.
Resources are limited and there is competition between users and consumers
of these resources. What route should an industry follow? Cease production?
Move to another site?

Cleaner production barriers
Although cleaner production techniques have evolved greatly over the past
years, and have consequently been adopted by and implemented in many
industries, there still remain two major “attitude problems” that present obsta-
cles to an even more widespread realization of cleaner production.
The first attitude problem pertains to those who fear being seen as fools,
going against tradition, being alone, being criticized, or making mistakes.
The second problem involves the “idea killers” who would say things
like “let’s think about it later”, “we have already tried it”, “it’s not the right
time”, “you don’t understand the problem”, “talk to John, it’s not my field”, etc.