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Green Solutions for Sustainable Great Lakes Basin

Learn how P2 strategies can reduce toxic substances in the Great Lakes Basin through efficient collaboration, waste reduction, and environmentally friendly practices. Explore successful P2 examples and future considerations for a sustainable economy and society.

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Green Solutions for Sustainable Great Lakes Basin

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  1. PBT – P2 Preventing Pollution: A Tool to Reduce and Eliminate Persistent Toxic Substances in the Great Lakes Basin

  2. Through collaboration, shared value, and applied problem solving, P2 can influence the management of PTSs by: • Reducing treatment, transport, and disposal costs • Minimizing compliance issues and cost associated with regulated wastes • Reducing future liability through reduced risks to workers, communities, and the environment • Avoiding costs of accidents and spills • Improving production times • Enhancing public image and community relations

  3. Examples of successful P2 practice in the Great Lakes Basin include: • Household Hazardous Waste Collections • Mercury Free Hospitals and schools • Tribal Burn Barrel Strategies • Pesticide Cleansweep Programs • Regulatory actions By targeting specific sources of use, such as: • schools, hospitals, end-of-life automobiles and dental offices • 505 lbs. of elemental mercury recovered from auto switches bound for crushing and shredding operations (NY) • 8,187 mercury containing devices reclaimed from households, school laboratories, doctor’s offices and clinics, recovering 621 lbs. of mercury (MI)

  4. Current and Future Considerations • As the global market for manufactured goods becomes more competitive, improved efficiency in the use of natural resources is integral to a sustainable economy and society. Waste reduction and the elimination of potentially harmful substances in the design of products is now becoming an important principal in how things are made. • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) • Environmental Management Systems (EMS) • Green Engineering • Green Chemistry • Design for the Environment (DfE) • Environmentally Preferred Purchasing (EPP)

  5. What is working • The cyclical use of materials • Targeting specific toxic chemicals for replacement • Defining materials flows is resulting in the creation of products designed to be recycled • Service oriented programs are also being created to take back products at end of life • The use of alternative fuel and energy sources is also considered a marketable indicator in new the Green Label Initiative • Offering incentives –financial, regulatory, public perception

  6. Where we are going • The waste reduction and elimination models now being practiced in some industries provide a new vision • If we consider that in all natural systems, waste equals food, ecosystem sustainability is an easy concept to grasp • Innovative solutions through strong partnerships are needed to recognize that in both human and natural systems, sustainability is an outcome of relationships among the parts

  7. What is missing: • Larger scale coherent P2 plan • Many local/regional successes but no larger scale program to tie together • No prioritization by contaminant, mode of release, etc. • Integration with other efforts • P2 can play a role in many areas (drinking water, wastewater, clean air, AOC cleanup, groundwater, WTE, power generation, etc.), but not all parties are at the table • Methods to learn from mistakes • Focus on lb kept from environment precludes learning from failures

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