Safe Minimum Standards

The most common measures to protect the environment are controls on materials, wastewater and air pollution in order to reduce emissions and effluents to acceptable levels. These measures can take a variety of forms including safe minimum standards (SMS) as well as facilities to recover, re-circulate or disperse polluting materials and waste water.

If a production system or processing operation is to be environmentally and socially acceptable then SMS for polluting waste outputs need to be established. Where standards are imposed they can be uniform throughout a region or country, or alternatively they may apply to a specific enterprise or sector, or a combination of the two. In terms of enforcement and administrative ease a uniformly applicable regulation is often preferable. However, in terms of economic and environmental efficiencies this may not be the case, since not only do local absorptive and regenerative capacities vary (and hence their pollutant effect) but also the marginal costs of adjustment can vary substantially between enterprises.

Invariably most SMS are relative rather than absolute and values are changing. The mix and intensity of the problems vary widely between processes and locations and, hence, specific solutions need to be designed for each setting. Some environmental degradation may be acceptable and in some cases it may be more cost effective to charge the polluter and/or compensate the affected rather than completely eliminate the effect at great expense.

It is important that such trade-offs are recognised, that environmental and social impacts are taken into account (i.e. not just economic factors), and that explicit judgements are made about how to deal with the trade-offs. The costs of modifying an operation to meet appropriate environmental criteria should be regarded as normal project costs. Similarly, the costs resulting from impacts should also be considered as part of normal project costs.

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