Pollution prevention

Pollution prevention reduces the amount of pollution generated by a process, whether it is consumer. In contrast to most pollution control strategies, which seek to manage a after it is formed and reduce its impact upon the environment the pollution prevention approach seeks to increase the efficiency of a process, thereby reducing the amount of pollution generated at its source. Although there is wide agreement that source reduction is the preferred strategy, some professionals also use the term pollution prevention to include pollution reduction.

With increasing human population, pollution has become a great concern. Pollution from human activities is a problem that does not have to be inevitable. With a comprehensive pollution prevention program, most pollution can be reduced, reused, or prevented. The US Environmental Protection Agency works to introduce pollution prevention programs to reduce and manage waste.

Human Population Numbers

With nearly seven billion people in the world, and the fact that the average person produces 4.4 pounds of waste each day, around a ton of waste every year, it is easy to see why pollution is such a huge problem (Recycling Revolution, 2010). In order to slow the growing levels of pollution, the human population needs to stabilize. Population numbers are rapidly increasing in developing countries. It is estimated that “the human population will increase by one billion people in the next decade” (Kinder, 2011, Sec. 1, Para. 1). Growth in these developing countries is partly due to developing countries governments telling their citizens that more numbers are needed to fill in the open spaces as the West has (Kinder, 2011).