Green Chemistry: What Is It All About?

1. Green Chemistry: What Is It All About? AcidGreen: Eco friendly digital agency. By Josh McPhee.

2. What is green chemistry? • Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes to reduce their carbon footprint and the amount of damage they cause to humans, animals and the environment.

3. 12 Principles of Green Chemistry • 1. Prevent waste. • . This means that when companies use products they try to recycle the waste and use it again. It is easier to prevent waste then to clean it up once it’s there. • 2. Design safer chemicals. • . Big name factories and scientists try to find chemicals that are easy going on the environmentand cause less damage. • 3. find safer ways to make synthetic products. • . Finding ways to create environmentally safe artificial products to use instead. • 4. Maximise atom economy • . In the end products they try to maximise the amount of original product left in the end. Trying not to waste any atoms. • 5. Use safer solvents • . If required, use solvents that are least harmful or best for the environment. • 6. Use renewable reactants. • . Reactants that can be re-used reduce the amount of waste produced and save money and resources.

4. 7. Maximise energy efficiency • . Use as little energy as possible and try and do multiple things at once. • 8. Avoid chemical derivatives • . Chemical derivatives cause waste in the end product, but these can be re-used in the next process. • 9. Use catalysts whenever possible. • . The use of catalysts speeds up the process and minimise the amount of chemicals they need to get a reaction. • 10. Design biodegradable products. • . Design products that when placed in the environment can break down and not react again. • 11. Use real-time analysis to prevent pollution. • . Test the chemical process’ for maximum efficiency so that in the end there is no wasted product that is accidentally made. • 12. Minimise the potential for accident. • . Make sure you follow all procedures as listed and wear all the required material, you should also have a supervisor.

6. How they help the environment. • A) In my case study I was investigating the green chemistry process’ that AcidGreen undertook to help save what environment they could. They have done this in a number of ways, such as: • 1, preventing waste. 6, use renewable reactants. 7, maximise energy efficiency. 10, design biodegradable products and 11, use real time analysis. • B) AcidGreen used green chemistry by recycling used photo paper and reducing environmentally hazardous materials used in the print industry through email marketing.The change from printed material to digital marketing is also an awesome way to save money and the environment, this reduces the amount of waste created. They also measured their carbon footprint, this ensures that whatever power Digital Pacific ( their partner company) uses, the same amount used is fed back into the electricity grid from wind or solar power, rather than non-sustainable means, that will run out in the future.

8. C) AcidGreen print your order on 100% recycled paper, this reduces the carbon footprint by slimming down the number of tree’s used for photo paper. They will also donate money on your behalf to plant a tree. They also donate money to the maintenance of the trees after being planted.

9. Bibliography: Website: http://www.acidgreen.com.au/eco_friendly.html Date Accessed: 28/07/2012 Book: Science Dimensions 4 Date Accessed: 28/07/2012 Website: Http://www.greenchemistry.com.au Date Accessed: 02/08/2012 Website: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/pollutionprevention/greenchemistryresources/index.cfm Date Accessed: 02/08/2012 Website: http://greenchem.uoregon.edu/ Date Accessed: 02/08/2012 Website: http://www.chempower.org/inaction.html Date Accessed: 02/08/2012

10. Website: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/upload/FAQs_greenchem.pdf • Date Accessed: 02/08/2012 • Website: Http://www.google.com.au/greenchemistry/ Date Accessed: 02/08/2012