Environmental laws and manufacturing

One of the ways that manufacturing is regulated is through environmental laws. These environmental laws are passed by numerous federal agencies to help protect the environment. These laws are applied to various business industries, including manufacturing, because some of their previous practices have been found to harm the environment. The environmental laws are put into place to try to reduce the footprint that people and businesses are leaving on the environment and to prevent more harm from occurring. Most environmental laws are enacted and enforced by the federal government's Environmental Protection Agency, but other federal agencies can enact and enforce the environmental laws.

Here is a look at some of the more common environmental laws that would apply to manufacturing plants.

Number one: Solid Waste Disposal Act
This law was put into place to prevent business from disposing of their solid waste in an unsafe manner. This is especially important because majority of solid waste is considered hazardous waste, so to protect the environment from being harmed by hazardous waste and to protect people from being harmed by hazardous waste the solid waste must be disposed of properly. For example, used oil must be taking to a disposal site so it can be safely disposed of rather than dumped in a landfill or down a drain. Electronics are also harmful to the environment if they are not disposed of properly, you can take old electronics to a recycling center so that they can be stripped of their parts and safely dumped.

Number two: Safe Drinking Water Act
This act was enacted in response to all of the hazardous waste and garbage that was being dumped into rivers and streams. This act was created to prevent manufacturing plants and other business from dumping any chemicals or other hazardous waste into rivers and streams. The reason for this is that the rivers and streams are what feed into water treatment plants that create our drinking water. If the water that goes into these plants is contaminated it might not be entirely cleaned when it turns into drinking water.

Number three: Clean Air Act
Many businesses, especially manufacturing plants, happen to put out a lot of pollution. The emissions that these businesses put out into the air can make the air hazardous for people to breathe. The increased air pollution has begun to destroy the ozone layer, which is what helps protect Earth from the Sun's harmful rays. To prevent further damage to the ozone layer and to help clean up the air that people are breathing the Clean Air Act was passed. This act requires that businesses lower the emissions that they are putting into the air by adopting more energy efficient machines because they produce lower emissions, there are also other things that businesses can do to lower their emissions.

Number four: Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Not only was the air we breathe being affected by pollution, but also so are the rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans near manufacturing plants. This act was passed to prohibit manufacturing plants and other businesses from dumping their hazardous waste into any water, it prohibits them from dumping garbage into the water as well. The problem that was going on was that the pollution in the water was killing the aquatic life or making it unsafe to eat because of high mercury levels. The debris that was building up in the water was killing aquatic life because it was responsible for polluting the waters or entrapping fish and other aquatic life.

There are many other environmental laws that federal agencies have passed to help protect our environments, not all of them apply to manufacturing plants, but manufacturing plants are one of the biggest causes of pollution for our environment.