By David Okul
July 24, 2019
Technologies such as treatment of Air Pollution, Water Pollution, and Waste Treatment are referred to as “End of Pipe Technology” because they dispose of pollutants at an outlet. Against that, in Agenda 21 adopted at “United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit)” in 1992, “Cleaner Production (CP)” was suggested to progress. CP includes not only hard technology but also the technologies for operation and management methods (Soft Technology), based on the idea of reducing the environmental burden in every process from extracting of raw materials to the disposal of products and reuse (GECF,2011).
United Nations Environment defines cleaner production as “The continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes, products, and services to increase overall efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment.” From this definition, it is evident that the aim of cleaner production is to reduce risks to humans and environment associated with production activities through a continuous plan all through the production process; it looks at preventing environmental consequences of production rather than remedying them at all stages of the product life cycle.
The benefits of cleaner production are numerous including:
It increases profitability
It can help reduce serious environmental problems such as air pollution, reduced biodiversity, global warming, water pollution and ozone depletion
- It lowers production costs;
- It enhances productivity;
- It provides a rapid return on any capital or operating investments required;
- It increases product yield;
- It results in improved product quality;
- It increases staff motivation;
- It relies on active worker participation in idea generation and implementation;
- It reduces consumer risks;
- It reduces the risk of environmental accidents;
- It is often supported by employees, local communities, customers and the public;
- It often leads to the more efficient use of energy and raw materials when the process is implemented properly
- It assists companies to avoid regulatory compliance costs;
- It leads to insurance savings;
- It provides enhanced access to capital from financial institutions and lenders;
- It is fast and easy to implement and requires little capital investment;
- It reduces long-term liabilities which companies can face many years after pollution has been generated or disposed at a given site (APINI, 2011).
History of Cleaner Production
Most of the polluting industries were established when raw materials were plentiful and sinks for disposing of wastes were also limitless. Until the 1960s, passive waste management strategies were common and they included:
- Foul and Flee: An environmental migration practice that involved moving from degraded sites to the resourceful and convenient site. In the past, in the event that a place became inhabitable due to environmental degradation, people would simply move to a new locality.
- Dilute and Disperse: The practice was purely based on the assumption that the natural environment had a high assimilative capacity. Therefore, industries would release effluents to large water bodies such as seas with the assumption that the sea would somehow dilute the effluent.
- Concentrate and contain: The concept informs some of the common waste management techniques such as landfills. However, it has been established that the ‘contained’ wastes often find ways to leak to the environment.
Nevertheless, as the human population grew, the materials became lesser and the waste problem began gaining attention. As such, passive waste management strategies were unwanted. Instead, reactive and proactive approaches were favored.
Examples of reactive measures included:
- End of pipe approach: It was the most preferred option in the 1970s as it involved purifying wastes and pollutants at the end of emission pipes.
- Onsite recycling approach: became more popular in the 1970s as it included collecting, processing and reusing materials that would otherwise be dumped as wastes.
However, in the period after the 1990s, environmentalists were more concerned with a proactive philosophy of anticipating and preventing wastes before they are produced. Proactive environmental strategies seek to manage environmental issues at the source instead of reacting to them (Terefe et al., 2015). Eco businesses favor a proactive approach to waste management.
- Cleaner production: follows the proactive approach and fosters sustainable development by enhancing industries to produce more with less.
Other terms related to the concept of cleaner production includes eco-efficiency, integrated environmental protection, reduction at the source, minimization, pollution prevention among others. The principles guiding cleaner production methods are the environmental principles of prevention, precautionary and integrating. Cleaner production emphasizes on using resource-efficient technologies. Silvica has prepared a quick guideline that can give you ideas on how to implement CP at your business. Access the guideline here
Links to References and Resources
APINI, (2011). Introduction to Cleaner Production, Concepts and Practice. Institute of Environmental Engineering. Lithuania.
GCEF, 2011 What is Cleaner Production. Global Environmental Centre Foundation.
David Okul is a freelance writer, and a PhD student at a Kenyan university
