Electrolytic manganese metal industry experience based China’s new model for cleaner production promotion

Cleaner production has long been viewed as an environmental management tool in China and many other countries. This understanding in recent years has become a major barrier that prevents CP from playing its full functions. This article introduces the approach, results and result dissemination of a project set up by the central government of China aiming at controlling the serious pollution of the electrolytic manganese metal industry. Based on experience of this project and our practical experiences of CP audits in more than 200 companies we propose a new model for CP promotion. A preliminary definition of the new model is presented.