Clean Production 459
Promoting cleaner businesses
When business owners and workers understand how chemicals and industrial
waste can harm them and everyone in the community, they are often willing to
make changes in production materials and methods to reduce harm. Sometimes,
however, it is necessary to pressure them in both positive and negative ways to
achieve changes that will benefit community health. There are various ways to
influence business to choose cleaner production methods.
Government can: ban or regulate the use of toxic chemicals and dangerous
production processes; refuse to purchase products that are produced in harmful
ways; provide funds to businesses to change to cleaner production methods;
charge less taxes to businesses that use clean production, and collect more
taxes from businesses that use harmful methods.
People can: educate themselves,
business owners, and workers
about the dangers of toxics and
the benefits of cleaner production
methods; boycott (refuse to buy)
products made by a company
or sold by a business that is
polluting; let others know about
nontoxic alternatives that can be
substituted for toxic products; use
the media to both denounce toxic
corporate practices and celebrate
the successes of nontoxic,
sustainable businesses.
Workers can: learn about, follow, and enforce rules about safe handling of
toxics, and write protections against toxics for workers and the community
into their union contracts.
Cleaner small businesses
Sometimes, small business owners do not fully understand the harm toxics can
cause. When they and their workers use, store, and dispose of toxic chemicals
in unsafe ways, they are usually just trying to save money, time, and labor.
After all, many businesspeople live in the same communities they are
polluting, and are friends and neighbors of the people affected. Or they may
know about cleaner production methods but feel they cannot afford the cost
of making changes. But over time, the high costs of health care for injured
workers and environmental clean-up for damage in the community will often
end up costing more time and money, rather than saving it.
When small businesses change to cleaner production practices, they help
make the entire community, and their future as a business, more sustainable.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012