Cleaner Production
| Since the 1960’s, mostly, problems with emissions of pollutants from industrial sources to the environment were addressed by the utilisation of end of pipe pollution control technologies. These approaches reduced the direct release of some pollutants to achieve regulatory compliance but did not really solve the problems. Often, the pollutants were only transferred from one sink to the other. Additionally end-of-pipe treatment causes extra costs. Cleaner production (CP) on the contrary is a common sense approach: Instead of treating waste and emissions in end-of-pipe treatment plants, we try to define ways to prevent the production of the pollutants. This approach includes organisational changes, motivation and training for good housekeeping as well as changes in raw materials, process technology, internal and external recycling. The basic idea is a change of the end-of-pipe question: ”What shall we do with waste and emissions?” to the cleaner production question: “Where do waste and emissions come from and what can we do to prevent their production at the source?”. >> Cleaner Production versus end-of-pipe >> Definitions - Pollution Prevention and Cleaner Production >> The main features of Cleaner Production >> Cleaner Production activities and techniques >> Cleaner Production and Environmental Management Systems (EMS) >> The ECOPROFIT method |