Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Materials Management
In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history. Significant changes in the course are required to achieve sustainability. Conventionally, various engineering disciplines taught in universities were fairly segregated; each focuses on a narrowly defined design and manufacturing function without consideration of its environmental consequences. This is no longer acceptable in the industry, where pollution prevention and waste minimization have become very important. This rapidly changing industrial emphasis was initially in response to regulatory pressure, but now it is driven primarily by economics. Industries are striving to minimize waste generation at source, to reuse more of the waste materials that are generated, and to design products for easier disassembly and reuse after their useful lifetime is completed. Modern industries have started to realize that by minimizing end-of-pipe type of treatment, often, economic competitiveness is also acquired. In line with the current and future trend, this course is designed to acquaint the students with the concepts and principles of pollution prevention and sustainable materials management, and build up their basic skills in these areas by reviewing and practicing case studies.
Course goals:
The objective of this course is to introduce the principles of pollution prevention, sustainable materials management, environmentally benign products, processes and manufacturing systems. Students will learn the impacts of wastes from manufacturing and post-use product disposal, environmental
cycles of materials, sustainability, and principles of environmental economics. Materials selection, process, and product design, and packaging are addressed. Case studies will also be conducted to train the students in problem-solving skills.
In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history. Significant changes in the course are required to achieve sustainability. Conventionally, various engineering disciplines taught in universities were fairly segregated; each focuses on a narrowly defined design and manufacturing function without consideration of its environmental consequences. This is no longer acceptable in the industry, where pollution prevention and waste minimization have become very important. This rapidly changing industrial emphasis was initially in response to regulatory pressure, but now it is driven primarily by economics. Industries are striving to minimize waste generation at source, to reuse more of the waste materials that are generated, and to design products for easier disassembly and reuse after their useful lifetime is completed. Modern industries have started to realize that by minimizing end-of-pipe type of treatment, often, economic competitiveness is also acquired. In line with the current and future trend, this course is designed to acquaint the students with the concepts and principles of pollution prevention and sustainable materials management, and build up their basic skills in these areas by reviewing and practicing case studies.
Course goals:
The objective of this course is to introduce the principles of pollution prevention, sustainable materials management, environmentally benign products, processes and manufacturing systems. Students will learn the impacts of wastes from manufacturing and post-use product disposal, environmental
cycles of materials, sustainability, and principles of environmental economics. Materials selection, process, and product design, and packaging are addressed. Case studies will also be conducted to train the students in problem-solving skills.