Drivers for the Substitution of Chemicals of Emerging Concern

The European Commission defines the emerging pollutants as “substances that have the potential to enter the environment and cause adverse ecological and human health effects but are still largely un-regulated and whose fate and potential effects are poorly understood”. Ingredients in pharmaceuticals and pesticides, industrial plastic additives, personal care products and flame retardants can be cited as belonging to the group of pollutants.
This work gives an overview of topical chemicals of emerging concern in three focal sectors: pharmaceutical (anti-inflammatory), agriculture (pesticides) and the plastics industry (BPA and phthalates). Moreover, it aims to provide recommendations enhancing the development of factors driving possible upstream solutions to minimize the discharge. This work addresses the foreseeable transition from a particular chemical of concern to safer chemicals or non-chemical alternatives and provide future recommendations to policy makers and chemical product innovation.
Environmental regulations and chemical safety concerns have shown to be among main factors that induce chemical companies to carry out technological innovation and increase R&D intensity for green innovations. Enterprises need to increase their investments in eco-design and provide alternatives with lower burden on the environment.
Following the principles of Safe and Sustainable by design, the substitution of chemicals of emerging concern becomes important. At the same time, it is important to evaluate how different environmental and product policies address the issue. One needs to recognise the differences in resource endowment and the environmental regulation varies across regions, neither is the degree of social and economic development the same. Second, there are many types of environmental regulations, and the impact of each on enterprises will also be different. Among environmental policies, the EPR (Extended producer responsibility) stands out as scheme, which has originally been planned to incentivise firms to carry out technological innovation for eco-design. Though many studies have shown a positive relationship between environmental regulations and green innovation, it is not fully clear how and under what conditions this relationship is established, considering the different environmental policy mechanisms and different approaches to green innovation in companies.