6    MAKING POLLUTION PREVENTION WORK
Paul S. Dickens, Environmental Engineering Specialist
MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.
Spartanburg, South Carolina 29304
INTRODUCTION
Environmental issues increasingly impact business decisions. For American industry, the burden of
compliance with environmental laws is a growing barrier to competitive strength. Successful companies reduce the burden of environmental regulation by incorporating environmental issues in strategic
plans for product design, customer service, and manufacturing technology. These "design-for-
environment" companies make pollution prevention a tool to improve competitive strength.
This paper is in two parts: a review of pollution prevention ideas and a case study highlighting
MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. Included are results of successful pollution prevention projects at
the MEMC manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The MEMC case study illustrates
evolution of a design-for-environment business strategy based on waste elimination and resource
efficiency improvement.
POLLUTION PREVENTION
What is pollution prevention? It is the simple idea that air emissions, wastewaters, and solid and
hazardous wastes that are not created do not have to be treated, stored, disposed of, or cleaned up
later. The regulatory definition of pollution prevention is more complex. Under the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990} prevention is the "first priority within an environmental management hierarchy that
includes: 1) prevention, 2) recycling, 3) treatment, and 4) disposal or release."2 This hierarchy is
illustrated in Figure 1. Selection of prevention over recycling, treatment, or disposal is a matter of
cost-effectiveness and risk. Prevention, recycling, and treatment activities may overlap. As a practical
definition, pollution prevention is any activity that reduces or eliminates air emissions, wastewaters,
and solid and hazardous wastes at their source?•* This includes recycling and waste source reduction.
It also includes waste elimination and resource efficiency improvement.
Why is pollution prevention important? It is an alternative to traditional waste management for
compliance with environmental laws.
TREND OF
ENVIRONMENTAL
LAWS
Figure 1.    Hierarchy for environmental
management under Pollution Prevention
Act.1'
48th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings, 1993 Lewis Publishers, Chelsea, Michigan 48118. Printed in
U.S.A.