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Pollution Prevention

Today’s Reality

Overall, the state has greatly benefited from the P2 program, because “pollution prevention pays.” According to the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, for every dollar businesses invested in P2, most earn a $6 return through cost savings and efficiencies. The table below shows Washington State P2 results.

Washington State Pollution Prevention Results: 1992-2007

Reductions	Amount	Financial Savings Estimated
Hazardous waste	206,000,000 pounds	$412,000,000
Hazardous substances	17,000,000 pounds	n/a
Solid waste	106,000,000 pounds	$1,000,000
Energy conservation	161,000,000 kilowatt hours	$9,900,000
Water conservation	980,000,000 gallons	$1,800,000
Air pollution	55,000,000 pounds	n/a
Total		$424,700,000

Source: "P2 Results Data System," www.pprc.org/measure/index.cfm, WA State Pollution Prevention Plan Results for 2007.

State law requires P2 planning to identify opportunities to reduce the use of hazardous substances or the generation of hazardous wastes. Implementing these opportunities, however, is voluntary and does not always occur. P2 plans often address only those waste streams that are the easiest to reduce rather than those that are the most toxic. In addition, P2 plans do not emphasize enough reducing the use of hazardous substances, yet many “future wastes” (for example, used or discarded products) are hazardous because they contain such substances. Ecology’s involvement with businesses is generally limited to regulating established activities. Ecology has few early opportunities to influence the decisions a business makes that affect the use of toxic substances and the generation of hazardous waste.

Ecology worked hard during the last five years to address some of these issues. For example, Ecology has streamlined the planning process with an earlier “in” and easier “out” of the P2 planning system. New facilities reporting hazardous waste receive a technical assistance visit encouraging them to reduce their wastes and avoid becoming a P2 planner in the first place. Ongoing efforts encourage planners to address the more toxic waste streams. Implementing the Toxics Reduction Advisory Committee (TRAC) recommendations also will help with this. (www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/hwtr/TRAC/index.html). We now need to encourage more plan implementation, with emphasis on reducing hazardous substances that pose the greatest risks.

Goals: What Washington will look like in 30 years (by 2035)

P2 planning will maximize effectiveness and help achieve the Beyond Waste vision by moving toward these goals:

Plan earlier.

Plan for pollution prevention earlier by encouraging businesses to incorporate P2 considerations into the design of their facilities, processes or products.

Plan better.

Plan better for pollution prevention by developing tools that help refine P2 planners’ understanding of the costs and inherent hazards posed by specific material flows, including standardized use reports.

More implementation.

Implement more pollution prevention activities through the introduction of different incentives or means to encourage greater implementation of P2 plan activities.

Better access.

Ecology provides better access to P2 planning program tools by enhancing the accessibility of the Ecology Web site.

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