Pollution Prevention / P2
What is Pollution Prevention, or P2?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) equates pollution prevention, or P2 with
source reduction preventing pollution before it is created, so there is less or no need to
control, treat or dispose of it. P2 can be achieved through practices that reduce or
eliminate the creation of pollutants through increased efficiency in the use of raw
materials, energy, water, or other resources, or through the substitution of less toxic
materials.
Why Pollution Prevention?
When EPA was created in the early 1970's, our work had to focus first on controlling
and cleaning up the most immediate problems. Those efforts have yielded major reductions
in pollution. Over time, however, we have learned that traditional "end-of-pipe"
approaches not only can be expensive and less than full effective, but sometimes transfer
pollution from one medium to another. Additional improvements to environmental quality
will require us to move "upstream" to prevent pollution from occurring in the
first place.
Pollution prevention also offers important economic benefits, as pollution never
created avoids the need for expensive investments in waste management or cleanup.
Pollution prevention has the exciting potential for both protecting the environment and
strengthening economic growth through more efficient manufacturing and raw material use.
EPA works to promote pollution prevention both inside and outside the agency. This is
done in several ways, such as using voluntary pollution reduction programs, engaging in
partnerships, providing technical assistance, funding demonstration projects, and
incorporating cost-effective pollution prevention alternatives into regulations and other
initiatives. EPA is also involved in "Greening the Government" activities to
improve the environmental performance of the government office operations.
University campuses are like cities and have numerous processes/ activities that afford
opportunities for reducing pollution through P2. Areas to explore include:
- Natural landscaping
- Water conservation
- Energy efficiency
- Environmentally Preferable Purchasing/ Buying Green
- Vehicle fleet maintenance
- Pest management
- Building cleaning and maintenance
- Laboratories/ micro scale chemistry
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