그린화학제도 활성화 및 산업체 지원방안

Abstract

Green Chemistry Activation and Support Policy for Industry Green chemistry represents a major paradigm shift that focuses on environmental protection at the design stage of product and manufacturing processes. It is an innovative way to deal with chemicals before they become hazards, with the goal of making chemicals and products "benign by design". Green chemistry is a preemptive strategy that reduces the use of toxic substances before they contaminate the environment and our bodies. It is a marked departure from the past where society managed industrial and municipal wastes by disposal or incineration. Green chemistry seeks to dramatically reduce the toxicity of chemicals in the first place, rather than merely their toxic waste use and disposal. Green chemistry focuses on improving the building blocks of manufacturing -the feedstocks and the catalysts used to make things- so products can be engineered to be safer, easily reused and not persist in the environment. The use of fewer hazardous substances means healthier air quality, cleaner drinking water and a safer workplace. Green chemistry changes the design of products and industrial processes so they do not threaten human health or the environment. Every week, headlines reveal chemical products with suspected toxic substances. There are tens of thousands of chemicals in use today, but we know very little about how they affect people or the environment. Consumers are not the only one who lack information about ingredients and their effects. Businesses along the supply chain also lack this basic information, which could lower the costs and liability arising from goods that contain toxic substances. Large, desirable markets in China and the European Union are demanding less toxic products. Korea has the opportunity to lead the nation in creating the safer substitutes that these global markets will continue to demand in the coming decades. Although Korea has made tremendous progress in chemical management over the last years, existing laws and regulations focus primarily on the pollutants generated from a cradle-to-grave industrial system. Today we confront new challenges from toxics in the chemical products we use and discard daily. With globalization and strengthening chemical regulations, there challenges have become