Pollution Prevention

When the term pollution prevention, P2 (or in the US version EP3 - environmental pollution prevention programme) came up some 10 years ago, the emphasis of environmental policy and instruments was shifted from controlling pollution after it has been created (end-of-pipe) to preventing its creation in the first place (process-integrated measures). In the meantime, policy makers and companies have mostly realised that pollution is also a symptom of inefficiency, which leads to the production of more waste (or Non-Product Output) than necessary, and that waste is often valuable raw material. In practice, P2 or EP3 programmes have concentrated on replacing expensive end-of-pipe solutions with approaches that avoid creating waste in the first place. They include waste minimisation, recycling, energy recovery and zero-emission processes. In addition, P2 encompasses waste treatment and remediation measures.

The application of the pollution prevention principle is largely state-of-the-art of all modern approaches of environmental policy and management. This is also true for GTZ projects in the field of energy efficiency, (waste) water management, air pollution control and (profitable) environmental management.

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