Environmental Impacts of Manufacturing

Energy

The post-Industrial Revolution use of coal as a fuel seriously affected the environment at extraction and usage sites. Soot and sulfurous and hydrochloric acid fumes were an omnipresent bane of urban life in the 19th century. Using electricity rather than burning coal or coal gas directly and the switch to smokeless fuels improved air quality. However, advances in science and medicine [Page 945]transferred environmental concern to microscale particles and acidic aerosols. Attention shifted from local to continental, and finally global, impacts, resulting in international negotiations over air quality protection (e.g., the 1979 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution and the 1998 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Energy-intensive industries, including electricity generation from fossil fuels, are the main contributors to air pollution and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). The major industrial air pollutants are acidic aerosols (e.g., sulfur, nitrogen oxides), volatile organic compounds (including contributors to ground-level ozone), particulates (especially those less than 10 micrometers in diameter, known as PM10), and toxic metals (e.g., arsenic, chromium, lead). Although air pollution control technology can keep emissions below the prescribed levels, it generates potentially hazardous solid or liquid waste products.

Water

Water courses and coasts provide economical means to import raw materials and export goods, as well as sources of water for production and a sink for discharged effluent. Groundwater is also at risk of impact. Excessive water abstraction can change the properties of a river, altering biodiversity and the landscape. It can also increase pollutant impact by decreasing dilution. Water returned to rivers can cause damage if insufficiently cooled. Potential surface and groundwater pollutants from manufacturing effluents include volatile organic carbons (e.g., petroleum products and industrial solvents), detergents, heavy metals, and food production by-products. The environmental protection of water bodies and surrounding environments has radically improved in industrialized countries over the past 30 years with the advent of emissions and conservation regulations, though the out-migration or closure of many industrial plants has contributed to this.

Materials

Raw material extraction and processing have environmental consequences that occasionally can be restorable to an extent. These consequences may be remote from the manufacturing location. Waste is not synonymous with pollution, but it may imply an inefficient use of raw materials and requires treatment and/or disposal. Some industrial waste or by-products can be fed back into production; others can become “raw materials” in complementary manufacturing sectors. Products may have an environmental impact during use. German, European Union, and other producer responsibility regulations extend manufacturers’ and importers’ liability to include products’ end-of-life phase, to both divert waste from landfills and encourage eco-design. Extraction and processing of raw materials and the disposal of by-products and products each requires a transportation infrastructure (water, rail, road, and/or air based) up to global in scale.

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