How Reducing, Reusing and Recycling can help to reduce air pollution; A Look in Closed Production System

Having a strong legislation system is definitely fundamental in controlling air pollution through effective monitoring and enforcement of the regulations on industrial activities. However, a multi-pronged approach is still much needed to truly tackle the tricky air pollution issue in a holistic manner. Today, we will look into how industries can develop closed production system to help reduce, reuse and recycle industrial wastes so that lesser industrial wastes will be produced. A reduction in industrial wastes will translate into lesser amount of waste being incinerated and a reduction in the amount toxic air pollutants byproducts produced from the incineration plants.

Singapore is a land-scarce country so we incinerate our waste into ash to help reduce the volume of the waste down to as low as 10% of their original volume. The ash will then be transported to our offshore landfill island, Pulau Semakau, which was a land reclamation project between two original smaller islands. It is well known to be a world leading innovative waste management method as it is  also fast becoming a habitat in supporting a diverse biodiversity.  

Pulau Semakau, The World's First Offshore Landfill
Source: Roslan Rahman/ AFP/ Getty Images

As perfect as it may seem, incineration is far from being the perfect solution as it produces extremely carcinogenic air pollutants also known as the furans and dioxins, along with other better known air pollutants such as nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide. In addition, it is highly expensive to build and maintain the incineration plants especially the pollutants trapping system to ensure that these harmful air pollutants are not released into our air.

Therefore, the more sustainable way forward is to minimise the waste sent for incineration. Now we will explore on a relatively novel framework - closed-loop production system, that industries can adopt to help reduce their industrial waste. A comprehensive paper that evaluate and emphasis on the value of this innovative framework by H. Winkler is available here.

In his paper, he stresses that the current unsustainable production chain between various industries generates high amounts of industrial waste. Hence, he introduced the concept of sustainable supply chain networks (SSCNs), which different manufacturing industries will collaborate to collect, exchange and eliminate waste. For instance, waste from an industry can serve as a valuable material for production process in another industry, thus reducing the total amount of waste generated if these industries are to operate individually. For instance, carbon dioxide gas generated from cement producing plants can be harnessed for biofuel companies to manufacture their algae-based fuels.

Moreover, he also recommends the manufacturing companies to invest in new technologies such as the ease of disassembly of their products when discarded to increase the recycling potential of the products. This will in turn help to reduce the waste generated when the products reach the end of their shelf life.

This exciting closed-loop production system definitely opens new possibilities and possesses the potential to help to minimise waste sent for incineration, thus reducing the generation of hazardous air pollutants such as dioxins. Lesser waste generated can also help to fight against other pollution such as water pollution and etc.