ABSTRACT

The amount of waste generated in the United States has reached staggering proportions; according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 300 million tons of solid waste alone are generated annually. Although both the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Act encourage businesses to minimize the wastes they generate, the majority of current environmental protection efforts are centered around treatment and pollution cleanup. The passage of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 has redirected industry’s approach to environmental management; pollution prevention has now become the environmental option of that decade and the twenty-first century. Proper planning and organization are crucial to the successful performance of the pollution prevention assessment. Pollution prevention techniques must be evaluated through a thorough consideration of all media, hence the term multimedia. The four phases of pollution prevention assessment (i.e., planning and organization, assessment, feasibility, and implementation) are introduced.