The Pollution Prevention Act

Answer

Explain the origin of the federal Pollution Prevention Act, including the year it was passed, events leading to its passage, politics leading up to its passage, by how wide of a vote it was passed, and which president signed it.        

            The Pollution Prevention Act is widely regarded as the most crucial regulation with regard to prevention of United State's environmental pollution. More so, the regulation's structure is wide-ranging and established a nationwide policy regarding environmental protection including the statement that pollution ought to be prevented or minimized at the source if likely. The origin of this crucial policy can be traced back to EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and its effort to minimize pollution in the country. EPA was launched in the wake of widespread concern about environmental degradation in the 1970s with the aim of consolidating various federal research, standard testing, as well as monitoring and enforcement activities to oversee protection of environment. There was always the feeling that EPA was generalized and pollution prevention efforts were coming short. Congress was well aware by the 1970s that pollution control often led to unintended as well as damaging effects (Case, 2013). More so, conventional pollution control laws were meant to curb pollution in only a singly medium, which signifies that there was additional pollution caused through the transfer of substances from a medium to another.  In fact, the United States government saw the need to narrow interpretation of what pollution prevention was about leading to the refurbishing or review of EPA. The outcome was what is today’s renowned the Pollution Prevention Act, which was passed by Congress in 1990. Indeed, following the passage of this regulation EPA came up with a formal definition of what pollution prevention entailed as well as a strategy to make it a central guiding statement. Through the Pollution Prevention Act Congress established that pollution ought to be curbed at the source if possible, waste that cannot be prevented need to be recycled with environmental concerns in mind, as well as release or disposal into the environment should only be viewed as the last resort. Through the Pollution Prevention Act, EPA sought to set its priorities right including showing the manner in which waste management needed to be done. The outcome was a hierarchy of favored options for addressing pollution and prevention was placed at the top of the list. For this reason, the Pollution Prevention Act has come to be associated with mitigating pollution at the point of origin. Thus, it can be said that the origin of the act involved the need to supplement conventional approaches with fresh ones that might better deal with cross-media pollution transfers as well as ensuring cost-effectiveness. The conventional pollution prevention policies or approaches faced challenges in the face of an increasingly industrialized nation, and Congress had to act leading to the enactment of the act.

            The politics leading to the passage of the Pollution Prevention Act involved the soaring realization that policies alone were doing little to curb pollution menace in the country. In fact, religious and political leaders were at the forefront in the campaign leading to the passage of this crucial regulation. At the core of the politics was the shared principle that pollution prevention was everyone’s responsibility and the government alone could not change the trend. Indeed, engineers, businesses, managers, as well as individuals were required to follow the countrywide hierarchy of waste management outlined by EPA. C. Schneider sponsored the regulation and it was passed in a vote in Congress (Walzer & Maynard, n.d). Worth noting, is that despite its significance, the vote was done through voice vote and no record of individual voting was done. The bill proceeded to the Senate where it passed and was signed into law by President Bush in October 1990. Altogether, the Pollution Prevention Act marked a new dawn in environmental pollution policies and efforts as the country responded to the realization that conventional en-of-the-pipe treatment was insufficient to safeguard the environment as well as human health. 

Address one of the five principles described on page 102 of the textbook. In your essay, include the date that the principle was initiated, events that led to the creation of the principle, the purpose of the principle, your thoughts about the usefulness of the principle, and any recent developments that occurred as a result of the principle. 

            Rio declaration is amongst the most significant declarations in recent history. The declaration represents a set of principles recognizing the significance of preserving global environment as well as setting forth global guidelines to achieve preservation. The set of principles making up the declaration were compiled at a conference initiated by the United Nations in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 1992. In fact, the declaration was initiated when member nations met at the city from 3^rd through 14^th June 1992 to reaffirm the declaration of the U.N conference on the Human Environment that had been adopted at Stockholm (Sweden) on 16^th June 1972 (Ashby, 2013). The declaration made it clear that economic, Environment, as well as social development should not be viewed as isolated fields as they are interconnected. In fact, the declaration stated that long-term economic gains could only be ensured if environmental protection was at the core of policymaking procedures around the world. To this end, nations were required to come up with a new worldwide partnership structure that involved  governments, citizens, as well as key sectors in society. 

            There were many events leading to the development of Rio declaration. Some of them included UNCHE (United Nations Conference on the Human Environment), which took place twenty years earlier in 1972 in Stockholm. Government representatives from approximately 178 nations and thousands of other representatives took part in the event discussing such matters as the gap between industrialized and developing nations, war, and poverty. At the core of the discussion lay the question about sustainable development to relieve the global environmental system. Rio declaration or the Rio Earth Summit proved to be everything that other conferences such as Stockholm Plus Ten (Nairobi, Kenya in 1982) could not. It surpassed proponents’ expectations and rather than being just another United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Rio emerged as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Worth noting, is that environment and development had been merged, which represented a change of direction from earlier situation whereby they had been so much in opposition at Stockholm (Ashby, 2013). In addition, Rio summit broadened the scope of international environmental diplomacy via adopting the ideal of sustainable development that had been put forward five years before by the WCED (World Commission on Environment Development).   

            Without a doubt, Rio declaration is among the most useful as it has continued to guide the development agenda around the world. In fact, it is almost impossible to talk about socio-economic development today without talking about the environment and health. At the core of modern policymaking is the guidelines set out in Rio declaration principles including the focus on humans. In fact, one of the recent developments that can be linked to Rio declaration involves Rio+20 (2009), which put forward such objectives as securing renewed political will on sustainable development matters as well as tackling emerging challenges. The member states agreed on such themes as green economy, which is entrenched in sustainable development policies.