ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
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house recycling. The downside includes the need for
long-term commitments to justify the initial capital
expenditures, and the need for further treatment to
meet some industries’ needs, and possibly regulatory
approval hurdles.
Multiple-use systems (MUS) involving cascading
reuses of water from higher to lower quality within
a river basin may have industrial components,
for example, where domestic wastewater may be
reclaimed for washing and cooling (UNEP, 2015c).
Reclaiming urban wastewater. Industry can assist on the
other side of the wastewater equation by using reclaimed
urban wastewater from municipalities: this inter-sector
water reuse is growing quickly in many countries. It is a
very proactive measure of sustainability as it reduces the
requirements for freshwater intake, which is particularly
important in areas of water scarcity, and reduces overall
municipal discharges. Issues of timing of wastewater
availability and its transport to the target industrial plants
also need to be worked out. In some cases, municipalities
will custom-treat wastewater for specific industries that
may not need perfectly clean drinkable water. In California,
for example, the Central and West Basin Municipal Water
Districts offer reclaimed water of different qualities and
costs, including process water for petroleum refining.
The State Water Resources Control Board also promotes
wastewater for power plant cooling.
SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
Water is not only an operational challenge and a cost
item in industry, it is also an opportunity for growth
as the incentives for minimising water use (which
includes wastewater use and recycling) reduce costs
and water dependency. Industry needs to ‘produce
more with less’, which in the case of water means
running drier.
As the reduction of freshwater intake is linked to a
decrease in wastewater discharges, there is a major
role to be played by cleaner production initiatives
that focus on reducing overall water use, closing the
water cycle, eliminating wastewater discharge (zero
discharge), and reducing or eliminating solvents and
toxic chemicals. Cleaner production through green
industry creates value by lowering operational costs
through the elimination of inefficiencies by using
the 3R strategy (reduce, recycle, reuse), which also
helps limit environmental impacts. For example, the
UNIDO Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technology
(TEST) programme has targeted wastewater pollution
from industry on the Danube River, with the goal
of improved water efficiency and less wastewater
discharges, by analysing the issues and problems,
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and introducing cleaner production solutions and
new technology.
Resource efficiency and enhanced environmental
performance have even been shown to generate
economic benefits for certain SMEs. More broadly
speaking, cleaner production has an important place
in industrial ecology, which also includes pollution
control, eco-efficiency, lifecycle thinking, and closed
loop production. These allow the identification of
opportunities for enhanced resource efficiency and
value-adding activities.
Food processing facilities
also contribute heavily to
wastewater production
and is a source of by-
products such as fats
and minerals.
The ultimate goa