Introduction to Biotechnology - Environmental Biotechnology: Theory and Application - page 8

Modalities and local influences
Another of the key factors affecting the practical uptake of environmental biotech-
nology is the effect of local circumstances. Contextual sensitivity is almost
certainly the single most important factor in technology selection and repre-
sents a major influence on the likely penetration of biotech processes into the
marketplace. Neither the nature of the biological system, nor of the application
method itself, play anything like so relevant a role. This may seem somewhat
unexpected at first sight, but the reasons for it are obvious on further inspection.
While the character of both the specific organisms and the engineering remain
essentially the same irrespective of location, external modalities of economics,
legislation and custom vary on exactly this basis. Accordingly, what may make
abundant sense as a biotech intervention in one region or country, may be totally
unsuited to use in another. In as much as it is impossible to discount the wider
global economic aspects in the discussion, disassociating political, fiscal and
social conditions equally cannot be done, as the following example illustrates. In
1994, the expense of bioremediating contaminated soil in the United Kingdom
greatly exceeded the cost of removing it to landfill. Six years later, with succes-
sive changes of legislation and the imposition of a landfill tax, the situation has
almost completely reversed. In those other countries where landfill has always
been an expensive option, remediation has been embraced far more readily.
While environmental biotechnology must, inevitably, be viewed as contextually
dependent, as the previous example shows, contexts can change. In the final anal-
ysis, it is often fiscal instruments, rather than the technologies, which provide the
driving force and sometimes seemingly minor modifications in apparently unre-
lated sectors can have major ramifications for the application of biotechnology.
Again as has been discussed, the legal framework is another aspect of undeni-
able importance in this respect. Increasingly tough environmental law makes a
significant contribution to the sector and changes in regulatory legislation are
often enormously influential in boosting existing markets or creating new ones.
When legislation and economic pressure combine, as, for example, they have
begun to do in the European Landfill Directive, the impetus towards a funda-
mental paradigm shift becomes overwhelming and the implications for relevant
biological applications can be immense.
There is a natural tendency to delineate, seeking to characterise technologies
into particular categories or divisions. However, the essence of environmental
biotechnology is such that there are many more similarities than differences.
Though it is, of course, often helpful to view individual technology uses as
distinct, particularly when considering treatment options for a given environ-
mental problem, there are inevitably recurrent themes which feature throughout
the whole topic. Moreover, this is a truly applied science. While the importance
of the laboratory bench cannot be denied, the controlled world of research trans-
lates imperfectly into the harsh realities of commercial implementation. Thus,
there can often be a dichotomy between theory and application and it is precisely