Bay Area Haz Waste Committee

"Green" or "sustainable" Chemistry has captured the attention of policy makers worldwide. A growing number of chemists, academics, industry leaders, and others are working towards the design and use of chemicals that are safe to produce, safe to use in industrial, commercial and/or home settings, and are benign as wastes. The 12 principles of Green Chemistry, by Paul Anastos and John Warner, states that Green Chemistry is a logical outcome of pollution prevention starting from the bench scale. The 12 principles are:

1. Prevent waste: Design chemical syntheses to prevent waste, leaving no waste to treat or clean up.
2. Design safer chemicals and products: Design chemical products to be fully effective, yet have little or no toxicity.
3. Design less hazardous chemical syntheses: Design syntheses to use and generate substances with little or no toxicity to humans and the environment.
4. Use renewable feedstocks: Use raw materials and feedstocks that are renewable (often from agricultural products) rather than depleting (often from fossil fuels).
5. Use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents: Minimize waste by using catalytic reactions. Catalysts are used in small amounts and can carry out a single reaction many times (stoiciometric reagents, which are used in excess, work only once).
6. Avoid chemical derivatives: Derivatives use additional reagents and generate waste.
7. Maximize atom economy: Design syntheses so that the final product contains the maximum proportion of the starting materials. There should be few, if any, wasted atoms.
8. Use safer solvents and reaction conditions: Avoid using solvents, separation agents, or other auxiliary chemicals. If these chemicals are necessary, use less harmful or dangerous chemicals.
9. Increase energy efficiency: Run chemical reactions at background or room temperature and pressure whenever possible.
10. Design chemicals and products to degrade after use: Design chemical products to break down to innocuous substances after use so that they do not accumulate in the environment.
11. Analyze in real time to prevent pollution: Include in-process real-time monitoring and control during syntheses to minimize or eliminate the formation of byproducts.
12. Minimize the potential for accidents: Design chemicals and their forms (solid, liquid, or gas) to minimize the potential for chemical accidents including explosions, fires, and releases to the environment.

Nanotechnology – creating atomic structures, devices and systems – may lead to less waste and may be considered green chemistry. However, as of 2007, the field cannot be considered a green chemistry panacea as there is little data about the environmental and human health effects of nanoparticles and no regulatory program to monitor the growing field.

European Green Chemistry Efforts In 2007, The European Union’s REACH directive becomes law. REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals. It supersedes 40 chemical laws in 27 European countries and is the first chemical regulatory scheme that applies to all chemicals, not just new ones but an estimated 30,000 existing chemicals.

REACH is being phased in from 2007 to 2018. After the establishment of a new European Chemicals Agency (2007/2008), the registration phase will begin. During this phase, which ends in November 2008, all existing chemicals with a usage of over one ton/year (throughout Europe) need to register. After this phase, rigorous chemical testing data will need to be submitted for each chemical. Those that are more widely used and/or have known risks will be evaluated, and possibly restricted, first.

Authorization will be required for substances considered to be Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, or Reproductive toxicant (CMR), and/or Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT’s), and/or very (v)PBT’s. Authorization may be given if the risk can be controlled or there is no substitute. But authorization will only occur if no substitute can be found after chemical producers/users testing for alternatives.

If a risk cannot adequately be controlled, then the EU Commission or a member state can propose to restrict the use and marketing of a substance. The EU Commission will decide whether or not to authorize the chemical.

REACH chemical data will be posted on the web, so chemical users and regulators world-wide will have extensive environmental and toxicological information on chemicals.

State and National Green Chemistry Efforts

US EPA has a Green Chemistry Program, which produced a fact sheet on Green Chemistry (attached) and sponsors an annual awards program for Green Chemistry pioneers and champions. The link to the US EPA program is: http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/

DTSC has a Green Chemistry Program. Its goals, as stated on the program homepage are:

DTSC and Green Chemistry share a common principle - preventing the generation of waste. California law directs DTSC to place the reduction of hazardous waste as its highest priority when developing new programs or carrying out the provisions of the Hazardous Waste Control Law. DTSC also promotes the application of Green Chemistry through its Source Reduction Programs….As part of its source reduction mandate, DTSC also implements cooperative technical assistance and outreach programs with industry to promote multi-media pollution prevention.

DTSC is sponsoring a symposia series on Green Chemistry and related pollution prevention topics such as nanotechnology and the recent European and Canadian efforts to regulate chemicals. A key goal of the symposia is to share information on the science and potential regulatory approaches so that California regulatory structure encourages the development and use of green chemicals as it discourages the use of toxics. The link to the DTSC Green Chemistry website, which includes links to the symposia series is: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistry.cfm

State Senator Joe Simitian introduced SB291 in February 2007, which adds a new chapter to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to pollution prevention, entitled "Design for the Environment Program." The program goals would be "related to pollution prevention, including goals concerning green chemistry and green engineering. The link to the bill page to check its status is:. http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bin/port-postquery?bill_number=sb_291&sess=CUR&house=B&author=simitian

In the California Assembly, AB558 Feuer, a placeholder bill called the Toxic Use Reduction Act of 2007, was also introduced in February 2007 to significantly reduce the use of toxic chemicals. The link to the bill page to check its status is http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bin/port-postquery?bill_number=ab_558&sess=CUR&house=B&author=feuer

How Local Governments can Promote Green Chemistry
Some actions for local governments to consider are:

1. Writing letters of support for the above green chemistry legislation. Also encourage state and federal representatives to consider implementing regulatory frameworks like REACH or extended producer responsibility for chemicals, frameworks that would promote development of green chemistry and/or decrease the use of hazardous chemicals.
2. Establish and implement Environmentally Preferable Purchasing policies at the local government level and encourage local businesses to do the same.

More information on how to start an EPP program can be found on the CIWMB website http://www.green.ca.gov/EPP/Introduction/default.htm.

Or StopWaste.org