Thus, this success defies a second piece of conventional wisdom, which holds that only company experts themselves accomplish pollution prevention successfully. To the contrary, the MSRI experience shows that companies can benefit substantially from interaction with informed critics drawn from the community and regional and national environmental organizations. The MSRI project aimed to achieve its reduction goals using only pollution prevention. Pollution prevention is an approach that promises increased efficiencies in manufacturing operations and reduced reliance on toxic chemicals while often saving money. Pollution prevention is markedly different from the traditional techniques used to control industrial pollution in the United States.
Savings come from reduced raw materials and treatment costs.
Pollution prevention is also superior environmentally, in that it decreases reliance on toxic chemicals in manufacturing in the first place and reduces wastes prior to treatment. It thereby avoids undesirable by-products of treatment, such as dioxin creation during incineration and the shifting of pollutants from one environmental media to another during treatment. Dow's Midland site is home to eight of Dow's 15 global businesses. It occupies 1900 acres, employs 4200 people, and manufactures more than 500 products, including pharmaceuticals, plastics, and pesticides. These products are manufactured by Dow by mixing various raw materials together and allowing them to react under very precise engineering conditions.