By Anthony Zeffinati Phiri –

Cleaner production mechanisms are essentially concerned with operations, environmental sustainability and maximisation of waste reduction by recycling, reducing and reusing at an organisation’s level.
This would result in sustainable development.
Additionally, it addresses environmental sustainability and ensures social and economic prosperity at organisational, national, or even global level, implying a macroeconomic scope.
Cleaner production involves coming up with stringent measures that would reduce or prevent pollution, waste minimisation and resource/eco-efficiency.
This would encompass better cleaner production management and housekeeping.
Despite this, there is a serious need to practice green economy, the reuse of waste products, process modification and the substitution of toxic and hazardous materials.
The bottom line of the principle is all about prevention of pollution as opposed to the control of pollution.
This is the more reason why the world should go green, for instance, if the world can come up with measures of phasing out cars and machines which are propelled by fossil fuel and instead come up with electric/solar propelled cars and machines respectively.
Therefore, it is imperative to note that electric cars, for example, would improve the air quality in the towns, cities and the entire atmosphere because pure electric cars produce zero carbon dioxide emissions when they are moving.
This would consequently minimise air pollution considerably.
Studies have it that, one electric car on the roads can save an average 1.5 million grams of CO2 annually.
As a result of such studies, the government of the United Kingdom (UK) and local councils have taken an extra mile with plans to accelerate the number of electric cars on the roads.
The government of the UK has set a target that the sale of petrol and diesel cars will be banned by 2040.
The UK is also looking forward to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050, and electric cars will play a major role in carbon emission reduction.
The same applies to the government of India, which has the ambition to manufacture huge volumes of electric cars with a strong desire to phase out petrol and diesel propelled cars.
In the same vein, they have set up a target to see to it that by 2030, all cars on the roads would be electrically propelled.
The idea of phasing out petrol and diesel injected cars should be a collective responsibility, meaning that every nation should participate.
It should not be the responsibility of car manufacturing nations only, but rather, it should be an effort that needs to be extended to all nations, be they car manufacturers or car importers.
This is critical if we are to curb the challenge of carbon emissions.
Further, cleaner production also provides a more holistic approach to waste management and focuses on the source and cause of waste generation rather than on solutions for treating and disposing of wastes by looking at the big picture.
Therefore, manufacturing industries, mines and many other organisations, should minimise waste generation by practicing the 3R approach, which is “Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.”
Any unplanned discharge of waste from the manufacturing industry, the mines or any other organisation, to the open or aqua environment (mine environment or water basins) should attract a penalty.
The promotion of cleaner production is a strategic approach to all industries, mines and organisations which discharge waste to have a constructive and proactive means of reducing and ultimately eliminating trade waste.
This will help to improve both the open and aqua environment.
A more practical example is an industry that produces edible oil.
When cooking oil has been produced, the waste (by-products) of the manufacturing process is converted into laundry soap.
This speaks to the goodwill of cleaner production.
However, there is still a big gap where the containers of cooking oil, which are made from plastics, are not followed from the communities such that they can come back to life by the means of recycling and reuse.
Plastics are hazardous and have a very long life span.
Plastic can remain in the environment for more than 100 years before it decomposes. Additionally, if the plastic gets into the aqua environment, it is broken down into small particles called microplastics and then consumed by fish.
There would be that ecosystem, where a human being would consume the fish.
The constant consumption of fish exposed to micro-plastics would result in humans suffering from cancer and liver disorder.
Therefore, cleaner production should be encouraged and implemented in all manufacturing industries, mines and all organisations as it is considered to be one of the major key factors to solve or reduce environmental problems.
The earth currently is being faced with global warming, change of weather patterns and acidification of the aqua environment.
Based on the current studies, cleaner production can tackle global environmental problems by focusing on reducing carbon emissions and consumption of resources.
However, despite all the benefits emanating from cleaner production, there are still barriers that slow down the development of cleaner production, such as individuals refusing to change the already existing methods and practices.
Some people are concerned that the cost of implementing cleaner production requires additional costs and preexisting processes.
Besides that, individuals may lack pathways and knowledge to apply cleaner production in their production line.
Hence, public education and research should be conducted to solve the current barriers by raising public awareness and introducing new methods and pathways for cleaner production.
The author is a food safety specialist and MSc holder in One Health Food Safety ( OHFS) from the University of Zambia. Contact: +260 965 030832.