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Iles Martin Rosen Undoing Chemical Industry Lock-ins- Polyvinyl Chloride and Green Chemistry .pdf (1.25 MB)

Undoing chemical industry lock-ins: polyvinyl chloride and green chemistry

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 18:13 authored by Alastair Iles, Abigail MartinAbigail Martin, Christine Meisner Rosen
We examine polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as one example of the ethical challenges that the chemical industry faces when putting green chemistry into practice. Green chemistry has emerged as a powerful new philosophy for designing molecules, reactions, and products to be intrinsically non-toxic and sustainable. We consider three issues: Should the chemical industry overcome the inertia of path dependent technologies and introduce safer, more sustainable technologies? What will motivate companies and their employees to practice green chemistry under conditions where changing technologies and businesses can create substantial economic, market, and technical risks? How should the precautionary principle be applied in terms of the real-world complexities of manufacturing chemicals? To do so, we look at examples of environmental and health harms in the feedstock and PVC manufacturing lifecycle stages, along with green chemistry solutions that could be employed. PVC suggests how difficult it could be to adopt green chemistry solutions; nonetheless, these solutions may make significant contributions across the chemical industry generally.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry

ISSN

1433-5158

Publisher

HYLE Publications

Issue

1

Volume

23

Page range

29-60

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-06-26

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-07-01

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-06-25

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