Pollution Control

Air, water, soil, noise

 MAIN OBJECTIVES
• To introduce the principles and methods to control air, water, noise and
soil pollution.
• To develop basic understanding of following topics:
o sources of pollution

o recycle and reuse of waste, energy recovery and waste utilization

o air pollution and its measurement

o design of pollution abatement systems for particulate matter and gaseous

constituents

o design of waste-water and industrial effluent treatment

o hazardous waste treatment and disposal

o solid-waste disposal and recovery of useful products.

 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND EIA
• Traditionally, industries and its basic components were designed based
upon technical and economic considerations only. Now-a-days, it is
essential to consider environment, health and safety as factors during
design.
• Environmental ethics is related to attitude of people towards other living
beings and environment.
• During any project, though it is essential that ‘economic sustainability’ is
attained; however, it is also essential that ‘ecological sustainability’ and
‘social sustainability’ are also attained.
• Impact assessment is a handy tool to assess the environmental
compatibility of the projects in terms of their location, suitability of
technology, efficiency in resources utilization and recycling, etc.
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has now been made a

prerequisite for the settling up of new projects and renewal of

licenses of old and existing plants.

 Major polluting industrial sectors
• Cement
• Thermal power plants
• Iron & Steel
• Fertilizer
• Zinc Smelters
• Copper Smelters
• Aluminum Smelters
• Oil Refineries
• Distilleries
• Pulp & Paper
• Dyes and Dye Intermediates
• Pesticides
• Petro Chemicals
• Petroleum refining
• Sugar
 MAJOR DEFINITIONS AS PER INDIAN
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTS

• Environment” includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship

which exists among and between water, air and land and human beings,
other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property.

• “Environmental pollutant” means any solid, liquid or gaseous substance

present in such concentration and may be, or tend to be, injurious to
environment.

• Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment

that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e.
physical systems or living organisms.
• “Air pollutants” means any solid, liquid or gaseous
substance present in the atmosphere in such
concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to
human being or other living creatures or plants or
property or environment.
• “Air pollution” means the presence in the atmosphere
of any air pollutant.
• “Ambient air” means that portion of the atmosphere,
external to buildings, to which the general public has
access.
• Noise pollution is excessive, displeasing human, animal or machine-
created environmental noise or any other noise that disrupts the
activity or balance of human or animal life.

• Soil Pollution defined as the build-up in soils of persistent toxic

compounds, chemicals, salts, radioactive materials, or disease
causing agents, which have adverse effects on plants, humans and
animals.

• Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes,

rivers, oceans and groundwater). Water pollution occurs when
pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies
without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.
 ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS DUE TO INDUSTRIAL
DEVELOPMENT

• Large scale contamination of water and air.

• Deforestation
• Increase in urban slums
• Generation of huge solid waste consisting of
hazardous material.
• Water scarcity and ground water depletion.
• Global warming
• Greenhouse effect
• Ozone layer depletion
 Necessity of pollution control

The need of pollution control can be ascertained from the following reasons:

• For Reduction in health hazards : Environmental pollution causes many health hazards
which affect human beings adversely. Therefore, to protect the human beings from these
health hazards, it is necessary to control environmental pollution.

• For Reduction in safety hazards : Environmental pollution causes several types of safety
hazards, more particularly in the winter season, resulting in air, rail and road traffic
problems. Therefore, it is necessary to control environmental pollution.

• To Reduce risk of liability : Organizations which cause environmental pollution by releasing

hazardous gases chemicals and solid wastes are held responsible for this. Such an act
attracts penal provisions too. Therefore, it is beneficial for such organizations to control
pollution in order to avoid their liability which may arise because of polluting the
environment.
• For Reduction in economic losses : Pollution control leads to reduction in economic losses
for both the organization and society. Organizations may reduce economic losses by
producing lesser toxic wastes, thereby saving the cost of disposing huge wastes. Pollution
control reduces economic losses of society because pollution causes damage to vegetation,
land fertility, health, etc.

• For Aesthetic look: Environmental pollution damages the natural environment thereby
reducing the quality of look of natural resources and man made aesthetic elements like
lakes, monuments, etc. By controlling environmental pollution, aesthetic look can be
maintained which provides a sense of beauty.

• To Improved public image: Generally, organizations which undertake suitable measures for
controlling pollution are perceived positively by the society. This improves the image of the
organization before the public which itself is a significant achievement for the organization.
 Pollution Prevention
• Pollution prevention is the elimination or prevention of wastes (air emissions,
water discharges, or solid/hazardous waste) at the source. In other words,
pollution prevention is eliminating wastes before they are generated.

• Pollution prevention approaches can be applied to all pollution generating activity:

hazardous and nonhazardous, regulated and unregulated.

• Pollution prevention offers important economic benefits and at the same time
allows continued protection of the environment.

• More importantly, pollution prevention should be viewed as a means to increase

company productivity.
• By reducing the amount of raw materials that are wasted and
disposed of; manufacturing processes become more efficient,
resulting in cost savings to the company.

• Pollution prevention should be the first consideration in planning for

processes that emit air contaminants.

• Undertaking pollution prevention practices may reduce air emissions

enough to allow a business or industry to avoid classification as a
major air emission source.
 Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Reduce
• Waste reduction and waste prevention is all about reducing waste at
the source.

• Waste is often due to the inefficient use of resources or bad planning.

Reuse
• Reuse means using a product more than once, either for the same
purpose or for a different purpose.
 Recycle

• Recycling is a way to manage waste materials once they have been

generated if they can’t be reused. It prevents waste from being sent
to landfill and makes waste into new goods or products.

• Effective recycling requires us to separate waste according to

different materials so that they can be recycled efficiently.

• This can involve turning the old material into a new version of the
same thing or into something completely different. For example, used
glass bottles can be recycled into new bottles or they can be recycled
road materials for use in construction projects.
 Control Measures

Types of control:
• Legal
• Social
• Economical
• Technological measures
 Control Measures
• Adoption of cost effective cleaner technologies should be encouraged

• Implementation of waste minimization techniques and adoption of appropriate

pollution control measures

• Discard and discourage technologies which do not conform to the quality of

products

• Spreading awareness messages through programs for the prospective and existing
entrepreneurs on usage of cleaner technologies and pollution control

• Waste minimization for improvement of productivity

• Assistance for sustainable development to be facilitated by the Government of

India.
• An additional system of taxation to be introduced based on
concentration of waste

• Encourage industry to regard 'pollution' as an economic

problem

• Tax exemption on waste selling, resource recovery and reuse

to be introduced

• Incentives may be introduced on waste selling, resource

recovery, reuse, etc

• Simplification of Environmental clearance procedures for the

industries located in industrial estates
• Encourage Common Effluent Treatment Plant

• During relocation of units detailed action plan to be prepared based

on:- environmental risk assessment, change of technology, waste
minimization

• plants in wetlands and on the banks of rivers are of particular

importance as they slow down the flow of the water and their roots
bind the soil, thus preventing erosion.

• Dispose the waste after separating them into biodegradable and non-
biodegradable waste material.

• Avoid unnecessary or wasteful packaging of products.

• Reducing noise pollution by muffling the sounds at the source is
one of the best methods in industry and for urban living. Protective
equipment is generally mandatory when noise levels exceed 85
dB(A) in industry. Creation of green cover adjacent to municipal
roads and in mines is the way to mitigate noise pollution. It has
been observed that noise level reduces by 10 decibels per every
10m wide green belt development. Apart, redesigning industrial
equipment, shock mounting assemblies and physical barriers in the
workplace are also for reduction and exposure of unwanted
industrial noise.