Pollution Prevention & Waste Minimization Flashcards
7 cards from real CEA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Pollution Prevention & Waste Minimization flashcards as text
Which federal law requires large manufacturers to report annual releases and transfers of listed toxic chemicals, providing key data for P2 benchmarking?
Answer: The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Section 313
EPCRA Section 313 requires facilities meeting certain thresholds to submit annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reports, which are widely used to track pollution prevention progress.
An auditor calculates that a facility's waste-to-product ratio has increased from 0.05 to 0.12 over three years despite a stable production volume. This trend most likely indicates:
Answer: Deteriorating process performance or product formulation changes
A rising waste-to-product ratio with stable production means more waste is being generated per unit of product, indicating declining process efficiency or product/process changes that increase waste.
Green chemistry Principle #1, 'Prevention,' is most aligned with which pollution management strategy?
Answer: Designing chemical processes that generate no waste
Green chemistry's first principle states it is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean it up after formation, directly aligning with the concept of source reduction.
A facility substitutes a chlorinated solvent (TCE) with a bio-based citrus solvent for parts cleaning. Which life-cycle consideration is MOST important for the auditor to evaluate?
Answer: Whether the new solvent's full life-cycle impacts, including production and disposal, are lower
A true P2 assessment requires evaluating full life-cycle impacts; a substitute may appear greener in use but could have significant upstream production or downstream disposal burdens that offset benefits.
Which type of P2 technique involves redesigning a product so it uses less hazardous materials, lasts longer, or can be more easily disassembled for recycling?
Answer: Product reformulation or design for environment (DfE)
Design for Environment (DfE) and product reformulation focus on changing the product itself — its composition, durability, or end-of-life characteristics — to reduce environmental impacts throughout the product's life cycle.
When conducting a waste minimization assessment, which tool helps quantify how much raw material enters a process versus how much leaves as product versus waste?
Answer: Material or mass balance analysis
A material (mass) balance applies conservation of mass to track all inputs and outputs, revealing discrepancies that identify where materials are being lost as waste.
A facility implements an ink-jet coding system to replace solvent-based stamping, eliminating 2,000 lbs/year of VOC waste. For TRI reporting purposes, this reduction would appear as a decrease in which column of the Form R?
Answer: Column for on-site releases to air
Solvent-based stamping releases VOCs to the air; eliminating the solvent process reduces the facility's on-site air releases reported in the TRI Form R air release column.