Over the past few years a significant movement has been under way to institute green chemistry laws that would fundamentally change how chemicals are regulated and how the products that contain them are ultimately formulated. With its touted benefits, including safer products, the reduction of waste, elimination of end-of-the-pipe treatment, reduced energy use, and improved competitiveness; it seems hard to argue against green chemistry. That is, until the details are confronted as to how to make it happen through laws and regulation. Once this is taken into account along with the costs, it quickly becomes a complicated equation, although not necessarily insurmountable. Yet compounding the problem is a real possibility of disparate programs at the federal, state, and even local level. No matter where one stands on the political spectrum or on green chemistry, eventually too much uncoordinated, far-ranging regulation cannot be a good thing.
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