Chemistry can create products that don't
leave a toxic timebomb behind for future
generations.
Image: iStockphoto
“Green chemistry” – the creation of consumer goods and industrial products that don’t leave a toxic timebomb for future generations – is poised to reshape the way we shop and consume, and the fundamental production processes in industry.
The US State of California aims to become a ‘cradle-to-cradle’ economy producing no waste by 2050, Thomas Vandenburg, an attorney with Los Angeles-based law firm Dongell Lawrence Finney told the CleanUp 09 conference in Adelaide on 29 September.
Mr Vandenburg, who specialises in environmental law, says green chemistry received a major boost when the California Environmental Protection Agency launched a major initiative promoting it in April 2007.
“The California EPA defines “green chemistry” as “a strategy to reduce the use of toxic substances so that they do not harm the public or contaminate the environment,” he explains.
California’s Green Chemistry Initiative issued its final report in December 2008, calling for the State to:
- Expand Pollution Prevention
- Develop Green Chemistry Workforce Education and Training
- Create an Online Product Ingredient Network
- Create an Online Toxics Clearinghouse
- Accelerate the Quest for Safer Products
- Move toward a Cradle-to-Cradle Economy by the year 2050.
“California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control has effectively reduced generation of hazardous waste for targeted industries, but on a very small scale. Green Chemistry represents a far more ambitious effort, affecting many industries and production processes,” Mr Vandenburg says.
To achieve the switch to production systems which generate little or no toxic waste requires major changes not only in industry – but also in the market signals it receives from consumers.
“Consumer awareness and consumer choice are key elements of a strategy to promote green chemistry,” he says.
“Public awareness of the concept of “green chemistry” is increasing. It is a concept which the public in California is already inclined to embrace, based upon public opinion polls. Increased public awareness of green chemistry and focused attention upon specific green chemistry products and/or manufacturing practices should lead to changes in consumer behaviour.”
“These changes in the behaviour of the California consumer will strongly affect the behaviour of manufacturers, because the State of California by itself is the fifth largest economy on the planet, and California is considered a trendsetter for the rest of the United States.”
Previous public awareness campaigns around anti-smoking and reduced energy use give confidence the green chemistry would also catch on, he adds.
While most new eco-friendly industries depended on the availability of venture capital to get them started, green chemistry will likely instead rely upon innovation within existing manufacturers, encouraged by R&D tax credits.
Major research institutions should also be encouraged to enter into public-private partnerships with leading manufacturers as a cost-effective way to speed the development of green chemistry.
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