Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
share their experiences, their resources and their goals and perform partnership actions aimed
at complying with regulations but, in broader terms, at meeting the environmental needs and
expectations of the resident industries and the local communities. Through a joint
management of shared infrastructures and services, planned in concert with the resident group
of enterprises, it is possible to create economies of scale allowing the environmental issues to
be settled with a reduction in cost. The introduction of Ecologically Equipped Industrial
Areas should not be viewed by stakeholders (enterprises, local authorities) as an external
constraint hindering economic development but rather as a tool for revitalizing the area and
increasing the enterprises production system's competitiveness. The aim of joint
environmental management is to provide mutual benefits to industries, public authorities and
local populations. The enterprise system is evolving and territories are being provided with
policies and tools aimed at their strengthening. Industrial parks as well may take part in this
change process, closely meeting businesses and citizens' needs and becoming one of the most
effective strategies toward growing territorial competitiveness from an economic, social and
environmental point of view.
The introduction of this new concept of industrial area, provided with technical and
organisational tools aiming to minimize and manage jointly the pressures on the environment,
responds to the need to replace the so-called
end of pipe
approach (combating pollution as a
last stage of the process) with the precautionary principle preventing pollution. In particular,
it is not meant just to supply industries with specific environmental equipment, as it has been
so far, but to organize the industrial site so as to help, from an economic and technical point
of view, each enterprise in the area achieve their environmental goals, be they prescriptive or
voluntary.
1.4. Generation of Industrial Waste in Europe
Manufacturing industry waste comprises many different waste streams arising from a
wide range of industrial processes. Some of the largest waste generating industrial sectors in
Western and Central Europe include the production of basic metals, food, beverage and
tobacco products, wood and wood products and paper and paper products [5].
It has been estimated that over 33 million tonnes of industrial waste were generated in
Europe in 1998. Waste from the manufacturing sector continues to rise, despite national and
international declarations to reduce waste from manufacturing industry, to introduce cleaner
technologies and other waste minimisation initiatives and to work towards manufacturing
practices that are sustainable in the long term.
The manufacturing industry has a central role to play in the prevention and reduction of
waste as the products that they manufacture today become the wastes of tomorrow.
Manufacturers can achieve innovative solutions:
•
considering the impacts of their products throughout its life at the design stage of the
product (LCA);
•
using manufacturing processes that minimise material and energy usage;
•
eliminating or reducing where possible the use of substances or materials hazardous
to health or the environment;
•
manufacturing products in such a way that they last longer and may be recycled or
reused at the end-of-life stage.
