Environmental Management: Principles and practice

A brief history of pollution and waste problems
Humans have always polluted their environment: even wandering hunter-gatherers
or those living in scattered hamlets or small towns contaminated water supplies and
faced health risks as a consequence of slaughtering animals and living in smoke-
filled dwellings. Real problems followed urban development, population
concentration, industrial activity and applied chemistry. In London the smell from
tanning, the operation of lime-kilns, and the shift from wood to coal burning polluted
the air enough for Edward I to legislate in AD 1306 (Brimblecombe, 1987). There is
evidence of smoke and heavy metal (especially lead) pollution by Roman times; the
shift in Europe from wood to coal burning has shown up as soot in Greenland ice
cores (Wellburn, 1994).
Chemists have developed man-made compounds, especially since the 1940s,
some of which have serious effects on the environment, such as pesticides, radioactive
isotopes, PCBs, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These and other modern pollutants
can be toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or harmful in a variety of other ways, even at
very low concentrations, and some persist, posing a danger for organisms or
biogeophysical cycles for a long time. Losses of marine mammals in the Baltic and
elsewhere might be due to viral infections triggered as background levels of
compounds like PCBs reduce the victims’ immunity.
Before the 1960s it was common for industry and government bodies to ignore
or hide harmful on-site or off-site impacts. There were wide gaps in health and safety
laws and it was often difficult for workers, consumers or bystanders to seek damages.
The authorities seldom reacted unless there were obvious health threats or severe
nuisance. When action was taken it was cleaning up after rather than preventive.
Consequently, the burden of pollution and wastes have not necessarily been borne
by those who benefit from development, and sometimes people far removed and
unrewarded are disadvantaged. The impacts may also be indirect in time, with effects
felt and clean-up costs suffered even generations after pollution occurred or waste
was discarded.
Pollution and waste happens world-wide: both socialist modernism and western
capitalism have neglected environmental management (Feshbach and Friendly, 1992;
Mnaksakanian, 1992). Gradually governments, international agencies and NGOs
have increased monitoring and control of pollution and waste, and there is a shift
towards making the polluter pay and to encouraging prevention. This shift is far
from complete, and for some activities progress has been poor. Changing technology,
expanding industrialization and growing urban populations mean that provision for
pollution control and waste disposal must continue to be improved.
Many sites where pollution and waste have accumulated have not been recorded
yet pose a hazard, especially if dangerous material in containers is released when seals
deteriorate or if acid deposition makes compounds in soil more mobile (chemical
timebombs). Pollution and waste are increasingly transboundary problems, sometime
affecting the global environment. Before the 1970s such transboundary threats were
largely unrecognized, now increasingly the environmental manager must seek pollution
controls that can be applied to more than one country or the global environment.

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POLLUTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT
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Over the last few decades pollution and waste management has been aided by:
♦
growing adoption of the polluter-pays principle (Box 11.1);
♦
a trend towards more proactive planning and management (e.g. use of EIA);
♦
increased release of information on pollution and waste risks and nuisance—
as a result of government, NGO, media and international agency activity;
♦
improved legislation to define, monitor and control pollution and waste;
♦
spread of better environmental quality standards more widely applied—which
aids monitoring and exchange of information, and provides yardsticks for
legislators and enforcement;
♦
development of better policing, and of self-regulation and joint agreements
between regulators and potential polluters;
♦
better methods and equipment for monitoring and assessment;
♦
some shift to treating pollution before discharge;
♦
the end of the Cold War and improved international co-operation and exchange
of information (Young and Osherenko, 1993).
Regulatory authorities, industry, etc., have to balance costs of pollution control
and waste management against the value of environmental quality or human well-being.