Actors And Process Elements Of Cleaner Productıon
2. ACTORS AND PROCESS ELEMENTS OF CLEANER PRODUCTION
Cleaner Production of industrial goods and services is now essential if the concept of sustainable development is to become a reality.
In most cases, cleaner Production has an economic as well as an ecological advantage over traditional methods of environmental control. The major barrier to date remains human conservatism and motivation, but improved means of information dissemination and the adoption of lower-waste technologies and products also remain important contributors to Cleaner Production.
The Cleaner Production approach requires contributions from industrial production and operational personnel and service sectors, as much as from environmental specialists. The target audience for a Cleaner Production programme is therefore very broad, and the programme must adapt its message and its advice according to the particular audience or event under consideration.
2.1. Who is responsible for Cleaner Production?
In recent years, environmental specialists have developed an impressive array of tools and skills which can help in the general implementation of Cleaner Production actions.
At the planning level, various techniques have become common in many countries. These techniques include:
• environmental impact assessment
• risk assessment and risk management
• environmental audits.
• waste auditing
• product life-cycle assessment and ecolabelling
• energy auditing
• chemical safety
• product impact improvement.
Government personnel should use regulatory policy and standards, environmental monitoring, and economic incentives to influence industrial and consumer choice towards less polluting processes and products. However, the danger in relying too much on regulatory policy and standards is that the environmental management tools are then used only to comply with regulations, not to improve performance. For instance, a certificate can be obtained when a company has implemented a quality care system according to ISO 9000 standards. The company often makes no further efforts to improve the existing quality care system, and obtaining the certificate becomes a goal in itself. When the quality care system is approached with a Cleaner Production mentality, continuous improvements are made, irrespective of any possible certificates which can be obtained along the way.
This striving for continuous improvement is characteristic of the Cleaner Production concept. The environmental management tools which can be useful for the introduction of Cleaner Production programmes are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3.
Although the environmental specialists have an important part to play, the prime responsibility for Cleaner Production does not rest with them. The main contributors are all those who are in some way involved with production, distribution or consumption of industrial products and services. Clients or suppliers need to be conscious of the implications of their decisions on products.
Plant operators can pay more attention to process optimization, housekeeping and safe chemicals handling. Managers need to give employees incentives to reduce waste.
In industry, many preventative actions can be taken by individuals during their normal day-to-day activities. Technical personnel can best implement the prevention concept if there is a clear policy framework, and if the assessment methodologies (for example, environmental performance criteria for industrial products) are available, and when information on environmental impacts and alternatives is known. Management must however take the initiative to enable and encourage the technical personnel to act. Accordingly, many key decisions that enable Cleaner Production are actually made at the level of corporate management, or during policy development in government.
The different actors of Cleaner Production and their roles are summarized in Table 2.1.
2.2. Introducing Cleaner Production by governments
While it is industry that ultimately must implement Cleaner Production, the role of government is to lead by providing an environment that will accelerate the process and encourage industry to initiate its own Cleaner Production programme.
The range of tools available trying to catalyze industry to adopt Cleaner Production is large, and different countries will select those combinations of tools they regard as most suited to their needs.
The available tools for governments are analyzed under four different categories:
1 applying regulations
2 using economic instruments
3 providing support measures
4 obtaining external assistance.
Table 2.1. The diffrenet actors of Cleaner Production and their roles
Actor Role
The company
• employers
• employees • responsibility and internal control
• prevention teams and organization
• change in work routines
• participation and influence
The network of the company
• consultants
• suppliers
• educational institutions
• trade unions • cleaner working procedures
• cleaner process technologies
• changes in design and construction
• clean technologies
• learn prevention strategies
• new courses and further training
• working conditions versus environment
• ‘cleaner’ wage-bargaining system
• diffusion of knowledge about prevention
The authorities
• municipality
• central government
• green wastewater plan
• health and safety
• environmental certification
• trade agreements/action plans
• initiate the new methods of promoting clean technologies
The public
• citizen
• media • motivation to prevention
• information
• change of consumer behaviour and debate
Table 2.2. shows this analysis.
In industrialized countries, the first three of these tools have generally been applied in the order given in Table 2.2. The last tool, obtaining external assistance, is specially relevant to developing countries and those undergoing economic transition. In other words, governments have first established regulations designed to limit emissions to the air, water, and onto the land. They have then introduced economic instruments that encourage the observance of these regulations and penalize their infringement. Finally, they have provided support for industries to enable the regulations to be more easily met. In the process, developed countries have acquired extensive and complicated
regulatory systems.
Regulations have not been introduced on such a massive scale in developing countries, and it is not yet clear whether they will need to do so.
They certainly do not have to be in place before launching a Cleaner Production offensive. The implementation of Cleaner Production, with its goals of zero emissions and full recycling, does not necessarily depend on the existence of an extensive regulatory system. Developing countries may well find it more feasible to depend on raising awareness of the economic benefits implicit in Cleaner Production. Coupled with suitable support measures and the use of external assistance, this will be enough to persuade many industrial leaders to adopt Cleaner Production procedures, with regulations and economic instruments playing a less important role than they have in the industrialized countries.
Table 2.2. Differences in the use of policy instruments in the European Union and the United States
NL DK SP UK FR BE GE PO IT Gr USA
Legislation
Approval scheme including cleaner technology Ö Ö Ä Ö Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ö
Voluntary agreements Ö Ö Ä Ä Ä Ä Ö Ä Ä Ä Ö
Financial instruments
Tax, duties and fees Ö Ö Ä Ä Ö Å Ö Ä Ä Ä Ö
Grants and subsidies Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Å Ö Ö
Information and education
Demonstration projects, processes Ö Ö Ä Ö Å Ö Ö Ä Ä Ä Ö
Demonstration projects, products Ö Ö Ä Ä Ä Ö Ö Ä Ä Ä Ä
Consultant support Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ä Ä Ö Ä Ö
Centres of expertise Ö Ä Ä Ö Ä Ö Ö Ä Ö Ä Ö
Newsletters Ö Ö Ä Ö Ä Ö Ä Ä Ä Ä Ö
General manuals Ö Ö Å Ö Ö Ö Ä Å Ä Ä Ö
Industry-specific manuals Ö Ö Ä Å Ä Å Ä Ä Ä Ä Ö
Databases Ö Ö Ö Ä Ä Ö Ä Ä Ä Ä Ö
Videos Ö Ö Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ö
Conferences and seminars Ö Ö Ä Ö Ö Ö Ä Å Ä Ä Ö
Research and development programmes Ö Ö Ä Ö Ö Ö Ö Ä Ö Ö Ö
Ö yes Ä under preparation Ä no activities or no information
Reference: Commission of the European Union, DG XI Waste Management: Cleaner Technologies Update on Situations in Member States, Brussels, June 1994, draft; and J. Hirschhorn and K. Oldenburg, Prosperity without Pollution, Nostrand and Reinhold, New York, 1991
2.3. Process elements for Cleaner Production options
There are five main process elements for CP options:
Change in input materials
Technological change
Good house keeping
Product change
On-site reuse
2.3.1. Change in input materials
Input material changes accomplish Cleaner Production by reducing or eliminating the hazardous materials that enter the production process. Also, changes in input materials can be made to avoid the generation of hazardous wastes within the production processes.
Input material changes include:
• material purification
• material substitution.
2.3.2. Technological change
Technology changes are oriented toward process and equipment modifications to reduce waste, primarily in a production setting. Technology changes can range from minor alterations that can be implemented in a matter of days at low cost, to the replacement of processes involving large capital costs.
These include the following:
• changes in the production process
• equipment, layout, or piping changes
• use of automation
• changes in process conditions (such as flow rates, temperatures, pressures, and residence times).
2.3.3. Good housekeeping
Good housekeeping implies procedural, administrative, or institutional measures that a company can use to minimize waste. Many of these measures are used in industry largely as efficiency improvements and good management practices. Good housekeeping practices can often be implemented with little cost. These practices can be implemented in all areas of the plant, including production, maintenance operations, and in raw material and product storage.
Good operating practices include the following:
• Cleaner Production programmes
• management and personnel practices
• material handling and inventory practices
• loss prevention
• waste segregation
• cost accounting practices
• production scheduling.
Management and personnel practices include employee training, incentives and bonuses, and other programmes that encourage employees to conscientiously strive to reduce waste.
Material handling and inventory practices include programmes to reduce loss of input materials due to mishandling, expired shelf life of time-sensitive materials, and proper storage conditions.
Loss prevention minimizes wastes by avoiding leaks from equipment and spills.
Waste segregation practices reduce the volume of hazardous wastes by preventing the mixing of hazardous and nonhazardous wastes.
Cost accounting practices include programmes to allocate waste treatment and disposal costs directly to the department or groups that generate waste, rather than charging these costs to general company overhead accounts. In doing so, the departments or groups that generate the waste become more aware of the effects of their treatment and disposal practices, and have a financial incentive to minimise their waste.
By rational scheduling of batch production runs, the frequency of equipment cleaning and the resulting waste can be reduced. It is at this stage also that the energy efficiency of the process, and of the general plant operation, can be considered.
2.3.4. Product changes
Product changes are performed by the manufacturer of a product with the intent of reducing waste resulting from a product’s use.
Product changes include:
• product substitution
• product conservation
• changes in product composition.
2.3.5. On-site reuse
Recycling via use and/or reuse involves the return of a waste material either to the originating process as a substitute for an input material, or to another process as an input material.
After the options have been generated, an initial selection should be made,considering:
• availability
• suitability
• environmental effects
• economical feasibility.
This initial selection should take place before the Cleaner Production option is submitted to more thorough evaluation.
During the feasibility phase, the evaluation will result in a selection of options for implementation. Some examples of Cleaner Production techniques are given in Table 2.3.
The implementation phase of the options has to be followed by monitoring of the changes, and – inherent to the concept of Cleaner Production – followed by a new audit, which will be used to identify new options for Cleaner Production.
This last step closes the chain of continuous improvement.
Table 2.3 Examples of Cleaner Production techniques
Change in input material
Printing • Substitute water-based ink for solvent-based ink
Textiles
• Reduce phosphorus in wastewater by reducing use of phosphate-containing chemicals
• Use ultraviolet light instead of biocides in cooling tower
Electronic components
• Replace water-based film-developing system with a dry system
Technological changes
Filtration and washing
• Use countercurrent washing
• Recycle spent washwater
Parts cleaning
• Use mechanical cleaning devices
• Improve parts draining before and after cleaning
Surface coating
• Use electrostatic spray-coating system
• Use powder coating systems
• Use airless air-assisted spray guns
Good housekeeping
• Reduce raw material and product loss due to leaks, spills, drag-out, and off-specification process solution
• Schedule production to reduce equipment cleaning - for example, formulate light to dark paints so the vats do not have to be cleaned out between batches
• Develop employee training procedures on waste reduction
Product change
Batteries • Replace mercury in batteries
Spray cans • Replace volatile chemicals with water soluble formulation as aerosol
Refrigerators • Replace CFCs with Ammonia
On-site reuse
Printing • Use a vapour-recovery system to recover solvents
Textiles • Use ultrafiltration system to recover dye stuffs from waste water
Electroplating • Recover metal plating solution using an ion-exchange unit
