Green Chemistry Began in Industry, Not At the EPA

What is it about?

"Green Chemistry"did NOT begin at the US EPA or in Academia in the 1990s. Green Chemistry actually emerged and evolved from the long prior efforts at "Pollution Prevention" that evolved from the efforts of many scientists and engineers (especially in Industry) in many countries in the 1970s and 1980s. This article summarizes a longer prior article in the journal Substantia that explains and thoroughly documents all that surprising history.

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Why is it important?

For 25 years, the Academic literature has credited the origins of "Green Chemistry" to the EPA and the "12 Principles of Green Chemistry" during the 1990s. That "narrative" was wildly incomplete, to point of being deceptive. This article and its longer precursor in Substantia documents that "Green Chemistry" mostly just renamed the "Pollution Prevention" efforts that evolved in many places in the 1970s and 1980s.