UNIT- III

Pollution Prevention and Cleaner Production Awareness Plan – Waste audit – Environmental
Statement, carbon credit, carbon sequestration, carbon trading, Life Cycle Assessment -
Elements of LCA – Life Cycle Costing – Eco Labelling.
Q) Write the problems, causes and possible solutions for cleaner production financing?
Problems to be addressed Causes and Solutions
 Pollution Prevention
Pollution Prevention means eliminating or reducing the amount and toxicity of potentially harmful
substances at their sources, prior to generation, treatment, off-site recycling or disposal. It
emphasizes preventing or minimizing pollution, rather than controlling it once it is generated.
Pollution prevention has expanded as new challenges have come into focus - addressing climate
change, combating sprawl, and promoting the use of green building techniques and renewable
energy
The Law

The Federal Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 established pollution prevention as the public policy
of the United States. The Federal Act declares that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the
source wherever feasible, while pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an
environmentally safe manner. In the absence of feasible prevention or recycling opportunities,
pollution by-products should be treated. Disposal or other releases into the environment should be
used only as a last resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe manner.

Department Policy

It is the intent of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to institutionalize the
use of pollution prevention in all agency programs as the preferred management approach for
protecting public health and the environment. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental
Protection issued a statement declaring that pollution prevention will guide the Department's
efforts to carry out the mission of protecting and enhancing public health and the environment.

Implementation

The permitting process provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to consider pollution
prevention. It is important to remember that pollution prevention works by thinking through your
process from start to finish and looking for ways to reduce toxics, materials, and waste.

As owner or operator of a facility, you are encouraged to take into account the following hierarchy
of pollution prevention strategies in preventing or controlling pollution:

First, modify the process, raw materials or product to reduce the toxicity and quantity of by-
products released to air, water, and land;

Second, where feasible, capture and reuse energy, waste, and by-products;

Third, treat individual waste streams to reduce the toxicity and/or quantity of by-products released;
and

Finally, provide the final treatment and/or disposal of all remaining wastes necessary to meet all
applicable standards.

Benefits of Pollution Prevention

 Saves money.
 Reduces the use of toxic materials.
 Promotes more efficient use of raw materials, staff resources, equipment, energy and water.
 Improves worker health and safety through improved air quality, decreased use of toxic
substances, and fewer personnel protective equipment requirements.
  Decreases regulatory requirements by eliminating the need for permits, hazardous waste
manifests, monitoring and reporting.
 Improves community relations, company image and customer loyalty.

Need to Prevention pollution by Cleaner Production

Cleaner Production Awareness Plan

Adoption of CP techniques requires applying know-how, improving current applied technologies,

and increasing people's awareness. A major incentive for adopting a CP strategy is the reduction
in production costs due to improved process efficiencies.
 What are the steps to achieve cleaner production?

For production processes, cleaner production involves one or a combination of the following:
conserving raw materials, water and energy; eliminating toxic and dangerous raw materials;
reducing the quantity and toxicity of emissions and wastes at source during the production process.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defined "Cleaner Production Technology"
rightly as follows:

"Cleaner Production is the continuous application of an integrated, preventive environmental

strategy towards processes, products and services in order to increase overall efficiency and
reduce damage and risks for humans and the environment."

Key features of Cleaner Production Technology

 Continuous: It is a continuous environmental management approach.

 Preventive: CP seeks to prevent pollution from being generated, rather than cleaning it up
after it is generated. The simple reason is that this saves costs.
 Integrated: To be effective, CP should be integrated into the daily operations of a
company. In the same manner as companies do not do economic management only one
time but are doing this as an on-going integrated part of operations.
 Processes, products and services: Opportunities to improve the environmental (and social
and economic) performance of a company can be identified through CP, not only by
adjusting HOW things are done (processes) but also WHAT is done (products) and WHAT
SYSTEMS (services) are applied.

CP is also known as:

1. Eco-efficiency
2. Waste minimization
3. Pollution prevention
4. Green productivity

It includes dynamic innovative work into new structures, frameworks, courses of action, materials
and items that are more asset and vitality effective, whilst captivating and engaging individuals.
Such methodologies have gotten essential for organizations, establishments, governments, and
common pop culture to guarantee naturally, socially, and monetarily economical, utilization
production and administration techniques. These include instructive, preparing, administration,
and specialized support programs, which are required to quicken the appropriation of cleaner
production and maintainability by commercial ventures, governments and colleges.

Examples for cleaner production options are:

 Documentation of consumption (as a basic analysis of material and energy flows)

 Use of indicators and controlling (to identify losses from poor planning, poor education
and training, mistakes)
 Substitution of raw materials and auxiliary materials (especially renewable materials and
energy)
 Increase of useful life of auxiliary materials and process liquids (by avoiding drag in, drag
out, contamination)
  Improved control and automatization
 Reuse of waste (internal or external)
 New, low waste processes and technologies

Cleaner Production Techniques

Several complementary CP techniques or practices are possible, ranging from low or even no cost
solutions to high investment, advanced clean technologies. A common distinction for CP
implementation in developing countries is:

Good Housekeeping

Appropriate provisions must be taken to prevent leaks and spills. Good housekeeping is also the
proper way to achieve proper, standardized operation and maintenance procedures and practices.

Input Material Change

Hazardous or non-renewable inputs must be replaced by less hazardous or renewable materials or

by materials with a longer service lifetime whenever available.

Better Process Control

Modification of the working procedures, machine instructions and process record keeping for
operating the processes at higher efficiency and lower rates of waste and emission generation.

Equipment Modification

Production equipment must be modified so as to run the processes at higher efficiency and lower
the rates of waste and emission generation.

Technology Change

Technology, processing sequence and/or synthesis pathway must be replaced from time to time in
order to minimize the rates of waste and emission generation during production.

On-Site Recovery/Reuse

Wasted materials must be reused or recycled in the same process or for another useful application
within the company to minimize the cost and for making the process efficient.

Production of Useful By-Products

Previously discarded wastes can be transformed or converted into materials that can be reused or
recycled for another application outside the company which can be proved as a very desirable
scenario according to the perspective of company or owner.
Product Modification

Product characteristics can be modified in order to minimize the environmental impacts of the
product during or after its use (disposal) or to minimize the environmental impacts of its
production.

The benefits of cleaner production include decreased waste, the recovery of valuable by-products,
improved environmental performance, increased resource productivity, increased efficiency,
lower energy consumption, and an overall reduction in costs.

Objectives of a cleaner production audit

• Reducing waste and emissions;
• Saving materials, energy and water;
• Minimizing safety and health risks;
• Improving quality by minimizing off-specification products;
• Reducing environmental impacts;
• Reducing operational costs.

Waste audit
A waste audit is a formal, structured process used to quantify the amount and types of wastes being
generated by an organization. Information from audits will help identify current waste practices
and how they can be improved.
How to Conduct a Waste Audit ·
1. Assemble a Team & Set a Date ·
2. Determine Your Waste Categories ·
3. Gather Your Tools ·
4. Sort Your Trash.
5. Analyze your Results

Benefits of a Waste Audit

The benefits of completing a waste audit will vary depending on your company goals, but some
benefits include:

 Gathering specific data for waste reporting.

 Evaluating the effectiveness of the system already in place.
 Finding ways to save money on waste costs.
 Establishing the need for additional waste streams and staff education if contamination is
found.
 Determining if there is a need to cut back on buying certain products that may be going to
waste. For example, you may notice that milk is going off before it is being used, so you can
adjust your supply.

Environmental Statement
Environmental statement is process of self-Inspection for Improvement in Processes and
Reduction in Waste over the last year. In today's world every industry is optimizing their Sources,
equipments, Processes to face increasing competitions are forced to minimize Environmental
pollution.
Contents
In the Environmental Statement every industry should to provide Information on Production,
Consumption of raw, Water, Pollutants discharged in environment, Solid and Hazardous waste
with their Treatment Processes.
 Carbon credit
 Carbon credits are a component of national and international attempts to mitigate the
growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In these programs, greenhouse gas
emissions are capped and then markets are used to allocate the emissions among the group
of regulated sources.
 The goal is to allow market mechanisms to drive these sources towards lower GHG emissions.
Since GHG reduction projects generate offset credits, this approach can be used to
finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners around the world.
 Within the voluntary market, demand for carbon offsets is generated by individuals,
companies, organizations, and sub-national governments who purchase carbon offsets to
mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions to meet carbon neutral, net-zero, or other GHG
reduction goals.
 Certification programs that offer project developers guidelines and other requirements to
adhere to in order to produce carbon offsets support this industry.

Carbon sequestration
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one
method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing
global climate change.
It's a three-step process, involving: capturing the carbon dioxide produced by power generation or
industrial activity, such as steel or cement making; transporting it; and then storing it deep
underground.

Carbon trading
 Carbon trading, also known as carbon emissions trading, is the use of a marketplace to buy
and sell credits that allow companies or other parties to emit a certain amount of carbon
dioxide.
 Emissions trading is a market-based approach to controlling pollution by
providing economic incentives for reducing the emissions of pollutants. The concept is also
known as cap and trade (CAT) or emissions trading scheme (ETS). One prominent example
is carbon emission trading for CO2 and other greenhouse gases which is a tool for climate
change mitigation. Other schemes include sulfur dioxide and other pollutants.
 In an emissions trading scheme, a central authority or governmental body allocates or sells
a limited number of permits that allow a discharge of a specific quantity of a specific
pollutant over a set time period. Polluters are required to hold permits in amount equal to
their emissions. Polluters that want to increase their emissions must buy permits from
others willing to sell them.
 Emissions trading is a type of flexible environmental regulation that allows organizations
and markets to decide how best to meet policy targets. This is in contrast to command-and-
control environmental regulations such as best available technology (BAT) standards and
government subsidies.
 Life-cycle assessment
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the
environment over the entire period of its life thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and
decreasing liabilities.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) aims to quantify the environmental impacts that arise from material
inputs and outputs, such as energy use or air emissions, over a product's entire life cycle to assist
consumers in making decisions that will benefit the environment.

5 Steps of a product life cycle:

 Raw Material Extraction.

 Manufacturing & Processing.

 Transportation.

 Usage & Retail.

 Waste Disposal.

Elements of Life-cycle assessment

  Identify and quantify the environmental loads involved; e.g. the energy and raw
materials consumed, the emissions and wastes generated;
 Evaluate the potential environmental impacts of these loads
 Assess the options available for reducing these environmental impacts.

Life Cycle Costing

Life cycle costing is the process of maximizing benefits from limited resources or assets by adding
up all the lifetime costs associated with it. It helps businesses assess the cost an asset will incur
during its lifetime and decide whether to go ahead with purchasing the same.
Purpose of Life Cycle Costing
 It aids a business in understanding which will be more profitable and worthy of its investment.
 This process works out the best for the long-term planning of a business and its upcoming projects
or ideas.
 LCC helps settle a reliable budget and financial goal for a business.

Life cycle costing usually takes into account six types of costs:
 Purchase cost
 Maintenance cost
 Financing cost
 Operational cost
 Depreciation cost
 End-of-life cost

Ecolabelling
 Ecolabelling is a voluntary method of environmental performance certification and
labelling that is practised around the world. An ecolabel identifies products or services
proven to be environmentally preferable within a specific category.
 Ecolabelling effectively identifies and establishes markets for green and efficient products
and fulfils three primary objectives: encouragement of innovation in the environmental and
efficiency sector, consumer engagement and most important-environmental protection.
 Eco-labels can also help to raise consumer awareness of the importance of the environment
and protecting the planet. By seeing these labels on the products they buy, consumers are
more likely to be aware of the impact their choices have on the environment.