SYDNEY - Green chemistry, an eco-friendly strategy, can create products that don’t leave a toxic time bomb behind for future generations.

Green chemistry is poised to reshape the way we shop and consume, and the fundamental production processes in industry.

California aims to become a ‘cradle-to-cradle’ economy producing no waste by 2050, Thomas Vandenburg, an attorney with Los Angeles-based law firm Dongell Lawrence Finney, told the CleanUp 09 conference in Adelaide.

Vandenburg, who specialises in environmental law, says green chemistry received a major boost when the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a major initiative promoting it in April 2007.

The California EPA defines green chemistry as a strategy to reduce the use of toxic substances so that they do not harm the public or contaminate the environment”, he explains.

California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control has effectively reduced generation of hazardous waste for targeted industries, but on a very small scale.”

“Green Chemistry represents a far more ambitious effort, affecting many industries and production processes, Vandenburg says.

To achieve the switch to production systems which generate little or no toxic waste requires major changes not only in industry - but also in the market signals it receives from consumers.

Consumer awareness and consumer choice are key elements of a strategy to promote green chemistry, he says.

Previous public awareness campaigns around anti-smoking and reduced energy use give confidence the green chemistry would also catch on, he adds, according to an EPA release.

While most new eco-friendly industries depended on the availability of venture capital to get them started, green chemistry will likely instead rely upon innovation within existing manufacturers, encouraged by R&D tax credits.