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74-895: The mission of the American Chemistry Council is to promote the interests of corporations of the chemical industry . The trade group represents U.S. chemical companies as well as the plastics and chlorine industries, formerly known as the American Plastics Council , the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry and the Chlorine Chemistry Council. ACC implemented the Responsible Care program in 1988. At least 52 countries have implemented this initiative. It

148-678: A California bill to outlaw plastic bags, claiming that new law "amounts to a $ 1 billion tax added to [Californian's] grocery bills." But subsequent ACC efforts to prevent adoption of municipal ordinances banning plastic bags have not been successful. Over ACC opposition, San Jose, California , in 2010 adopted California's strictest ban. The ordinance, in effect since 2012, prohibits supermarkets, pharmacies, corner shops and others from distributing single-use plastic bags, with fines for violations. Retailers can sell paper bags made of 40 percent recycled materials for 10 cents each, gradually increasing to 25 cents by 2014. In 2016, California voters approved

222-533: A bill to ban bisphenol A statewide – including bulk postal mailings in July and August encouraging California citizens to demand opposition of their representing legislators. In 2011, it was a major sponsor of the 5th International Marine Debris Conference which endorsed the Honolulu Commitment to reduce harmful plastics in the environment. The ACC stepped in in 2023 to prohibit the passage of

296-739: A modern chemical process invented by William Hough Watson that used glycerin and vegetable oils . By the 1920s, chemical firms consolidated into large conglomerates ; IG Farben in Germany, Rhône-Poulenc in France and Imperial Chemical Industries in Britain. Dupont became a major chemicals firm in the early 20th century in America. Polymers and plastics such as polyethylene , polypropylene , polyvinyl chloride , polyethylene terephthalate , polystyrene and polycarbonate comprise about 80% of

370-654: A person’s energy intake averaged 2,300 kcal per person per day. It finds that if current dietary patterns were to continue until 2030, these hidden costs would exceed USD 1.3 trillion for health and USD 1.7 trillion for climate change, annually. A study conducted by Tufts University in the United States reviewed the health equity and economic benefits of medically tailored meals (MTMs) and produce prescription programs. It found that implementing MTMs in Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance for patients experiencing both

444-575: A plant in Charleroi Belgium. In 1874, they expanded into a larger plant in Nancy , France. The new process proved more economical and less polluting than the Leblanc method, and its use spread. In the same year, Ludwig Mond visited Solvay to acquire the rights to use his process, and he and John Brunner formed Brunner, Mond & Co. , and built a Solvay plant at Winnington , England. Mond

518-481: A similar way to the TCA definition of UNEP. In some publications, such as TEEBAgriFood Evaluation Framework, the term “multiple capital accounting (MCA)” is used to refer to TCA. For example, MCA is defined as “an approach to systems thinking, which includes natural, human, social and produced capitals” and “enables you to articulate and explore the visible and invisible connections that agrifood systems have with humans and

592-630: A site separate from the production plant(s). The scale of chemical manufacturing tends to be organized from largest in volume ( petrochemicals and commodity chemicals ), to specialty chemicals , and the smallest, fine chemicals . The petrochemical and commodity chemical manufacturing units are on the whole single product continuous processing plants. Not all petrochemical or commodity chemical materials are made in one single location, but groups of related materials often are to induce industrial symbiosis as well as material, energy and utility efficiency and other economies of scale . Those chemicals made on

666-784: A statewide ban on carry-out plastic bags. Chemical industry The chemical industry comprises the companies and other organizations that develop and produce industrial, specialty and other chemicals . Central to the modern world economy , it converts raw materials ( oil , natural gas , air , water , metals , and minerals ) into commodity chemicals for industrial and consumer products . It includes industries for petrochemicals such as polymers for plastics and synthetic fibers ; inorganic chemicals such as acids and alkalis ; agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers , pesticides and herbicides ; and other categories such as industrial gases , speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals . Various professionals are involved in

740-579: A wide variety of solid, liquid, and gaseous materials. Most of these products serve to manufacture other items, although a smaller number go directly to consumers. Solvents , pesticides , lye , washing soda , and portland cement provide a few examples of products used by consumers. The industry includes manufacturers of inorganic - and organic -industrial chemicals, ceramic products, petrochemicals, agrochemicals, polymers and rubber (elastomers), oleochemicals (oils, fats, and waxes), explosives, fragrances and flavors. Examples of these products are shown in

814-423: Is a list of the top 25 chemical companies by chemical sales in 2015. (Note: Chemical sales represent only a portion of total sales for some companies.) Top chemical companies by chemical sales in 2015. [REDACTED] London , United Kingdom From the perspective of chemical engineers, the chemical industry involves the use of chemical processes such as chemical reactions and refining methods to produce

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888-897: Is largely partial and not systematic. Natural capital provides biomass growth and freshwater to economic activities, which, in return, can negatively affect natural capital with GHG emissions and pollution. In contrast, certain production practices can contribute to ecosystem restoration, and this is the case of regenerative agriculture and agroecology. Human capital provides skills and labour and receives wages and working conditions that might be good or bad. Social capital contributes to economic activities through cultural knowledge and shapes customs of access to resources such as land, while economic activities can lead to social well-being or social marginalization and poverty. Produced capital contributes research and development, while generating income, profits, rent and taxes in return. Most true cost accounting studies try to reveal hidden costs relate to

962-532: Is managed at a global level by the International Council of Chemical Associations . Participation in the program is a mandatory for all ACC members. It has a political action committee that gives money to members of the Congress of the United States . ACC launched a $ 35 million "essential2" public relations campaign in 2005. "essential2" attempted to improve the industry's image by emphasizing

1036-497: Is of particular relevance for agrifood systems (food and non-food agricultural products), where hidden costs can be substantial. Indeed, much of the development of TCA has historically been in the context of food. Although True Cost Accounting is a relatively recent term, it is not a new concept. It is closely linked to the concept of externalities , indirect costs or benefits to an uninvolved third party that arise as an effect of another party's (or parties') activity. The root of

1110-616: The Bonnington Chemical Works in Edinburgh to make naphtha , pitch oil (later called creosote ), pitch , lampblack ( carbon black ) and sal ammoniac ( ammonium chloride ). Ammonium sulphate fertiliser, asphalt road surfacing , coke oil and coke were later added to the product line. The late 19th century saw an explosion in both the quantity of production and the variety of chemicals that were manufactured. Large chemical industries arose in Germany and later in

1184-456: The first pieces of environmental legislation to be passed in 1863. This provided for close inspection of the factories and imposed heavy fines on those exceeding the limits on pollution. Methods were devised to make useful byproducts from the alkali. The Solvay process was developed by the Belgian industrial chemist Ernest Solvay in 1861. In 1864, Solvay and his brother Alfred constructed

1258-791: The $ 546 billion global specialty chemical market was 33% Paints, Coating and Surface Treatments, 27% Advanced Polymer, 14% Adhesives and Sealants, 13% additives, and 13% pigments and inks. Speciality chemicals are sold as effect or performance chemicals. Sometimes they are mixtures of formulations, unlike " fine chemicals ," which are almost always single-molecule products. Consumer products include direct product sales of chemicals such as soaps , detergents , and cosmetics . Typical growth rates are 0.8 to 1.0 times GDP. Consumers rarely come into contact with basic chemicals. Polymers and specialty chemicals are materials that they encounter everywhere daily. Examples are plastics, cleaning materials, cosmetics, paints & coatings, electronics, automobiles and

1332-544: The 1840s. The first synthetic dye was discovered by William Henry Perkin in London . He partly transformed aniline into a crude mixture which, when extracted with alcohol, produced a substance with an intense purple colour. He also developed the first synthetic perfumes. German industry quickly began to dominate the field of synthetic dyes. The three major firms BASF , Bayer , and Hoechst produced several hundred different dyes. By 1913, German industries produced almost 90% of

1406-579: The EU and U.S. chemical companies are the world's largest producers. Sales of the chemical business can be divided into a few broad categories, including basic chemicals (about 35% - 37% of dollar output), life sciences (30%), specialty chemicals (20% - 25%) and consumer products (about 10%). Basic chemicals, or "commodity chemicals" are a broad chemical category including polymers, bulk petrochemicals and intermediates, other derivatives and basic industrials, inorganic chemicals , and fertilizers . Polymers are

1480-531: The European Chemical industry saw its sales increase from 295 billion Euros to 539 billion Euros, a picture of constant growth. Despite this, the European industry's share of the world chemical market has fallen from 36% to 20%. This has resulted from the huge increase in production and sales in emerging markets like India and China. The data suggest that 95% of this impact is from China alone. In 2012

1554-788: The Food and Drug Administration. Pesticides, also called "crop protection chemicals", are about 10% of this category and include herbicides , insecticides , and fungicides . Specialty chemicals are a category of relatively high-valued, rapidly growing chemicals with diverse end product markets. Typical growth rates are one to three times GDP with prices over a dollar per pound. They are generally characterized by their innovative aspects. Products are sold for what they can do rather than for what chemicals they contain. Products include electronic chemicals, industrial gases , adhesives and sealants as well as coatings, industrial and institutional cleaning chemicals, and catalysts. In 2012, excluding fine chemicals,

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1628-569: The Packaging Reduction & Recycling Act in New York state , spending a total $ 120,000 on two lobbying firms, Greenberg Traurig and Craig Johnson ’s Long Point Advisors, to work on its behalf for the duration of the legislative session. The Responsible Care (RC) program has been described as a way to help the industry avoid regulation by imposing its own safety and environmental regulations and to improve its public image in

1702-417: The TCA concept can be attributed to the work of Pigou and Marshall in the 1920s. Over the last decades, monetary values have been assigned to externalities where businesses are penalized, or when insurance firms calculate costs in industrial accidents. TCA is also considered to be an expansion of cost-benefit analysis (CBA). In the 1980s and the 1990s, other terms were used to convey similar concepts to that of

1776-442: The TCA such as full cost accounting. What sets the true cost accounting approach apart from its predecessors is that systems thinking and holistic thinking – which acknowledge that economic systems are made up of many stakeholders (such as producers, consumers, distributors and policy makers) and that these systems rely on multiple capitals (natural capital, social capital, human capital and produced capital) – are integral parts of

1850-462: The Table below. Related industries include petroleum , glass , paint , ink , sealant , adhesive , pharmaceuticals and food processing . Chemical processes such as chemical reactions operate in chemical plants to form new substances in various types of reaction vessels. In many cases, the reactions take place in special corrosion-resistant equipment at elevated temperatures and pressures with

1924-505: The U.S. there are 170 major chemical companies. They operate internationally with more than 2,800 facilities outside the U.S. and 1,700 foreign subsidiaries or affiliates operating. The U.S. chemical output is $ 750 billion a year. The U.S. industry records large trade surpluses and employs more than a million people in the United States alone. The chemical industry is also the second largest consumer of energy in manufacturing and spends over $ 5 billion annually on pollution abatement. In Europe,

1998-500: The United Nations Environmental Programme, aims to mainstream the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services into decision-making. The programme has developed guidelines and several studies have been conducted on how to implement TCA and then use the results to guide policy reforms. In 2018, TEEB for Food and Agriculture (TEEBAgriFood) was launched, under Alexander Müller. The aim was to address

2072-533: The United States, in July 2008, the Seattle City Council voted to impose an additional 20 cent fee on each plastic bag purchased from stores by shoppers as a convenience for transportation of goods. This effort was suspended until a referendum could be held in 2009, allowing voters a chance to weigh in on the issue of whether they should continue to be encouraged to support industry by purchasing plastic bags without considering disposal costs. During

2146-470: The United States. Production of artificial manufactured fertilizer for agriculture was pioneered by Sir John Lawes at his purpose-built Rothamsted Research facility. In the 1840s he established large works near London for the manufacture of superphosphate of lime . Processes for the vulcanization of rubber were patented by Charles Goodyear in the United States and Thomas Hancock in England in

2220-961: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, and the Sustainable Food Trust. Additionally, the Global Nature Fund and the Capital Coalition, in collaboration with TEEBAgriFood, have developed a framework for integrating TCA into business accounting to make business impacts transparent. The definition of True Cost Accounting is evolving, with many proposed definitions. The United Nations Environmental Programme defines it as “an evolving holistic and systemic approach to measure and value

2294-477: The approach. TCA acknowledges the complex nature of economic systems with all its interdependencies. An application of TCA tends to include a dozen or more indicators selected to measure and value positive and negative impacts across the environmental, health, social and economic domains. Recent advancements in the true cost accounting approach have been related to food and agriculture. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative currently hosted by

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2368-474: The chemical industry including chemical engineers, chemists and lab technicians. Although chemicals were made and used throughout history, the birth of the heavy chemical industry (production of chemicals in large quantities for a variety of uses) coincided with the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution . One of the first chemicals to be produced in large amounts through industrial processes

2442-440: The chemical, plastics, and rubber sectors are among the largest industrial sectors. Together they generate about 3.2 million jobs in more than 60,000 companies. Since 2000 the chemical sector alone has represented 2/3 of the entire manufacturing trade surplus of the EU. In 2012, the chemical sector accounted for 12% of the EU manufacturing industry's added value. Europe remains the world's biggest chemical trading region with 43% of

2516-553: The clustering and integration mentioned above, some 50% of the United Kingdom's petrochemical and commodity chemicals are produced by the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster on Teesside . Specialty chemical and fine chemical manufacturing are mostly made in discrete batch processes. These manufacturers are often found in similar locations but in many cases, they are to be found in multi-sector business parks. In

2590-884: The consumer. Annually the American Chemistry Council tabulates the US production volume of the top 100 chemicals. In 2000, the aggregate production volume of the top 100 chemicals totaled 502 million tons, up from 397 million tons in 1990. Inorganic chemicals tend to be the largest volume but much smaller in dollar revenue due to their low prices. The top 11 of the 100 chemicals in 2000 were sulfuric acid (44 million tons), nitrogen (34), ethylene (28), oxygen (27), lime (22), ammonia (17), propylene (16), polyethylene (15), chlorine (13), phosphoric acid (13) and diammonium phosphates (12). The largest chemical producers today are global companies with international operations and plants in numerous countries. Below

2664-442: The core theoretical issues and controversies underpinning the evaluation of the relationship between the agrifood sector, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the impacts on human health on a global scale. In order to research the potential of true cost accounting to transform agrifood systems towards sustainability, various other organizations and research institutions have also initiated TCA studies and reports. Examples include

2738-516: The creation of the first great chemical industrial enterprise. His powder was made by reacting chlorine with dry slaked lime and proved to be a cheap and successful product. He opened the St Rollox Chemical Works , north of Glasgow , and production went from just 52 tons in 1799 to almost 10,000 tons just five years later. Soda ash was used since ancient times in the production of glass , textile , soap , and paper , and

2812-779: The data from the European Chemical Industry Council shows that five European countries account for 71% of the EU's chemicals sales. These are Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands. The chemical industry has seen growth in China, India, Korea, the Middle East, South East Asia, Nigeria and Brazil. The growth is driven by changes in feedstock availability and price, labor and energy costs, differential rates of economic growth and environmental pressures. Just as companies emerge as

2886-552: The definition proposed by the True Cost Initiative confines the use of TCA to externalities while FAO suggests that externalities constitute only part of the hidden costs, while other hidden costs might be driven by other market failures such as poor and asymmetric information. Some use the term “full cost accounting (FCA)” to refer to the same idea. This is the case of IFOAM (Organics International & Sustainable Organic Agriculture Action Network), which defines FCA in

2960-546: The dollar output of the chemistry business) include differentiated chemical and biological substances, pharmaceuticals , diagnostics, animal health products , vitamins , and pesticides . While much smaller in volume than other chemical sectors, their products tend to have high prices - over ten dollars per pound - growth rates of 1.5 to 6 times GDP , and research and development spending at 15 to 25% of sales. Life science products are usually produced with high specifications and are closely scrutinized by government agencies such as

3034-407: The economy. It aims to reveal the impacts of economic activities on society as a whole, in addition to the private costs directly incurred by producers and consumers. These can be environmental, health or social impacts that are not reflected in the market prices of products and services, i.e. not included in the operational profit and loss accounts, and so are regarded as hidden. True Cost Accounting

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3108-408: The environmental, social, health or economic. Economic activities depend on – as well as affect – natural, human, social and produced capitals, which form the foundation of human well-being, economic success and environmental sustainability. Little has been done to measure most of the capitals with the exception of produced capital and part of human capital, therefore the TCA approach aims to measure

3182-685: The environment”. In 2023, the Food and Agriculture Organization defined TCA as “a holistic and systemic approach to measuring and valuing the environmental, social, health and economic costs and benefits generated by agrifood systems in order to improve decisions by policymakers, businesses, farmers, investors and consumers.” This definition is very similar to the one proposed by UNEP, the words “holistic and systemic” mean that TCA studies full systems, accounting for all types of capitals and stakeholders and their interconnectedness. In addition, this definition of TCA considers both “costs and benefits” and should value all impacts making them visible whether they are

3256-433: The field of food and agriculture. The scope of these studies differs depending on the research question being addressed, the geographical coverage and the hidden impacts to be included in the analysis. There are many hidden impacts and some are difficult to measure or quantify. For example, environmental externalities such GHG emissions are easy to include in any TCA analysis due to a wide availability of relevant data. However,

3330-605: The health effects of chemicals in the environment traditionally oppose ACC's initiatives. They view campaigns like "essential2" as efforts to distract public attention away from products and practices that they view as harmful and dangerous. The American Chemistry Council's stance on chemical regulation was heavily criticized in the 2015 documentary Stink! available on Netflix . ACC has engaged repeatedly in fighting governmental restrictions and bans on plastic shopping bags . The phase-out of lightweight plastic bags has been proposed or implemented in many countries since 2002. In

3404-500: The hidden costs associated with these capitals. Data that are commonly included in economic assessments relate to the flows and impacts of produced capital (that is composed of machinery, equipment, infrastructure, produce etc) and, to some extent, human capital (for example, labour and wages), which are observed, measured and quantified in the market. Flows and impacts related to natural, social and (part of) human capital, in contrast, are not, so their inclusion in economic assessments

3478-561: The hidden costs of global agrifood systems. FOLU (2019) estimated them at USD 12 trillion, while Hendricks et al (2023) estimated them at USD 19 trillion.  However, the latter, acknowledges the uncertainly in the estimate and concludes that the value would be between USD 7.2 trillion and USD 51.8 trillion. The third estimate in the 2023 edition of the FAO report: The State of Food and Agriculture estimates global hidden costs from agrifood systems to be USD 12.7 trillion. This study also acknowledges

3552-488: The hidden impacts related to human and social capitals might be more difficult to find. Examples include impacts on working conditions (human capital) and cultural identity (social capital). In 2019, a study by the World Bank estimated the hidden costs of foodborne diseases (from unsafe food) in low and middle-income countries and found these to amount to USD 95.2 billion. Three other studies have attempted to estimate

3626-438: The importance of chemical industry products – especially plastics  – to everyday life, and by using the term "American Chemistry" rather than " chemical industry". ACC later shifted to a more directed lobbying and policy-shaping effort, including taking legal action against federal efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from industry. Sometime in 2008, ACC launched a campaign to oppose California SB1713 –

3700-414: The industry's output worldwide. Chemicals are used in many different consumer goods, and are also used in many different sectors. This includes agriculture manufacturing, construction, and service industries. Major industrial customers include rubber and plastic products, textiles , apparel, petroleum refining, pulp and paper , and primary metals. Chemicals are nearly a $ 5 trillion global enterprise, and

3774-464: The largest chemical production centres anywhere. By the 1870s, the British soda output of 200,000 tons annually exceeded that of all other nations in the world combined. These huge factories began to produce a greater diversity of chemicals as the Industrial Revolution matured. Originally, large quantities of alkaline waste were vented into the environment from the production of soda, provoking one of

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3848-688: The largest of scales are made in a few manufacturing locations around the world, for example in Texas and Louisiana along the Gulf Coast of the United States , on Teesside ( United Kingdom ), and in Rotterdam in the Netherlands . The large-scale manufacturing locations often have clusters of manufacturing units that share utilities and large-scale infrastructure such as power stations , port facilities , and road and rail terminals. To demonstrate

3922-697: The largest revenue segment and includes all categories of plastics and human-made fibers. The major markets for plastics are packaging , followed by home construction, containers, appliances, pipe, transportation, toys, and games. Principal raw materials for polymers are bulk petrochemicals like ethylene, propylene and benzene. Petrochemicals and intermediate chemicals are primarily made from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas and crude oil fractions. Large volume products include ethylene , propylene , benzene , toluene , xylenes , methanol , vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), styrene , butadiene , and ethylene oxide . These basic or commodity chemicals are

3996-562: The long term. Another study compared the external costs associated with genetically modified and organic corn production in Minnesota, USA. The 2020 FAO report – The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World - estimated health and climate change hidden costs, driven by current dietary patterns that were estimated using food availability from FAO Food Balance Sheets and adjusted for food waste. The current dietary patterns assumed that

4070-450: The main producers of the chemical industry, we can also look on a more global scale at how industrialized countries rank, with regard to the billions of dollars worth of production a country or region could export. Though the business of chemistry is worldwide in scope, the bulk of the world's $ 3.7 trillion chemical output is accounted for by only a handful of industrialized nations. The United States alone produced $ 689 billion, 18.6 percent of

4144-637: The major dimensions (i.e. environmental, health and social) of agrifood system hidden costs, allowing not only comparison across countries, but also across the different dimensions. A study based in the United States reported nearly $ 2 trillion in hidden health and environmental expenditure, which disproportionately burdens communities of color. In 2018, a TEEBAgriFood study on organic rice production in Thailand measured and made visible its hidden costs and benefits of rice production in Thailand and identified options for stimulating sustainable rice production in

4218-423: The manufacture of sulfuric acid. In the early 18th century, cloth was bleached by treating it with stale urine or sour milk and exposing it to sunlight for long periods of time, which created a severe bottleneck in production. Sulfuric acid began to be used as a more efficient agent as well as lime by the middle of the century, but it was the discovery of bleaching powder by Charles Tennant that spurred

4292-606: The materials used in home construction. These specialty products are marketed by chemical companies to the downstream manufacturing industries as pesticides , specialty polymers , electronic chemicals, surfactants , construction chemicals, Industrial Cleaners, flavours and fragrances , specialty coatings, printing inks, water-soluble polymers, food additives , paper chemicals , oil field chemicals, plastic adhesives, adhesives and sealants , cosmetic chemicals , water management chemicals , catalysts , and textile chemicals. Chemical companies rarely supply these products directly to

4366-401: The period leading up to the referendum vote the American Chemistry Council stepped into this local affair, ultimately spending some $ 1.4 million on their successful effort to thwart the proposed system of fully accounting for the cost of plastic bags. Seattle in 2012 overcame ACC objections and successfully enacted a bag ban . In 2010, ACC was quoted by The New York Times in opposition to

4440-412: The positive and negative environmental, social, health and economic costs and benefits to facilitate policy, business, farmer, investor and consumer decisions.” The True Cost Initiative proposes a similar definition but uses the term “methodology” instead of “approach”. However, TEEBAgrifood presents TCA as an approach under which various methodologies and analytical tools can be used.  In addition,

4514-578: The product will meet required specifications . More organizations within the industry are implementing chemical compliance software to maintain quality products and manufacturing standards. The products are packaged and delivered by many methods, including pipelines, tank-cars, and tank-trucks (for both solids and liquids), cylinders, drums, bottles, and boxes. Chemical companies often have a research-and-development laboratory for developing and testing products and processes. These facilities may include pilot plants and such research facilities may be located at

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4588-400: The revenue output) make up the oldest of the chemical categories. Products include salt , chlorine , caustic soda , soda ash , acids (such as nitric acid , phosphoric acid , and sulfuric acid ), titanium dioxide , and hydrogen peroxide . Fertilizers are the smallest category (about 6 percent) and include phosphates , ammonia , and potash chemicals. Life sciences (about 30% of

4662-543: The source of the potash had traditionally been wood ashes in Western Europe . By the 18th century, this source was becoming uneconomical due to deforestation, and the French Academy of Sciences offered a prize of 2400 livres for a method to produce alkali from sea salt ( sodium chloride ). The Leblanc process was patented in 1791 by Nicolas Leblanc who then built a Leblanc plant at Saint-Denis . He

4736-475: The starting materials used to manufacture many polymers and other more complex organic chemicals particularly those that are made for use in the specialty chemicals category. Other derivatives and basic industrials include synthetic rubber , surfactants , dyes and pigments , turpentine , resins , carbon black , explosives , and rubber products and contribute about 20 percent of the basic chemicals' external sales. Inorganic chemicals (about 12% of

4810-655: The total world chemical output in 2008. Full cost accounting True Cost Accounting (TCA) is an accounting approach that measures and values the hidden impacts of economic activities on the environment , society and health . TCA is also referred to as “full cost accounting” (FCA) or “multiple capital accounting (MCA)”. The approach moves beyond purely economic thinking with the aim of improving decision-making in commercial organizations and in public policy. It includes accounting for natural capital , human capital , social capital and produced capital. The True Cost Accounting approach can be applied to every sector of

4884-418: The uncertainty in the estimate. The FAO report shows the global value of the hidden costs has a 95 percent chance of being at least USD 10.8 trillion and a 5 percent chance of being at least USD 16 trillion. Differently from the other two studies, the FAO report assesses hidden costs of agrifood systems at the national level for 154 countries. It states these national numbers are consistent and comparable covering

4958-458: The use of catalysts . The products of these reactions are separated using a variety of techniques including distillation especially fractional distillation , precipitation , crystallization , adsorption , filtration , sublimation , and drying . The processes and products or products are usually tested during and after manufacture by dedicated instruments and on-site quality control laboratories to ensure safe operation and to assure that

5032-631: The wake of the 1984 Bhopal disaster . According to a 2000 study, plants owned by RC participating firms improved their relative environmental performance more slowly than non members. The study highlighted the RC program as an example of how industries fail to self-regulate without explicit sanctions. According to a 2013 study, between 1988 and 2001, plants owned by RC participating firms raised their toxicity-weighted pollution by 15.9% on average relative to statistically-equivalent plants owned by non-RC participating firms. Environmentalists and those concerned about

5106-430: The world's exports and 37% of the world's imports, although the latest data shows that Asia is catching up with 34% of the exports and 37% of imports. Even so, Europe still has a trading surplus with all regions of the world except Japan and China where in 2011 there was a chemical trade balance. Europe's trade surplus with the rest of the world today amounts to 41.7 billion Euros. Over the 20 years between 1991 and 2011,

5180-428: The world's supply of dyestuffs and sold approximately 80% of their production abroad. In the United States, Herbert Henry Dow's use of electrochemistry to produce chemicals from brine was a commercial success that helped to promote the country's chemical industry. The petrochemical industry can be traced back to the oil works of Scottish chemist James Young , and Canadian Abraham Pineo Gesner . The first plastic

5254-490: Was sulfuric acid . In 1736 pharmacist Joshua Ward developed a process for its production that involved heating sulfur with saltpeter, allowing the sulfur to oxidize and combine with water. It was the first practical production of sulphuric acid on a large scale. John Roebuck and Samuel Garbett were the first to establish a large-scale factory in Prestonpans, Scotland , in 1749, which used leaden condensing chambers for

5328-740: Was denied his prize money because of the French Revolution . In Britain, the Leblanc process became popular. William Losh built the first soda works in Britain at the Losh, Wilson and Bell works on the River Tyne in 1816, but it remained on a small scale due to large tariffs on salt production until 1824. When these tariffs were repealed, the British soda industry was able to rapidly expand. James Muspratt 's chemical works in Liverpool and Charles Tennant's complex near Glasgow became

5402-491: Was instrumental in making the Solvay process a commercial success. He made several refinements between 1873 and 1880 that removed byproducts that could inhibit the production of sodium carbonate in the process. The manufacture of chemical products from fossil fuels began at scale in the early 19th century. The coal tar and ammoniacal liquor residues of coal gas manufacture for gas lighting began to be processed in 1822 at

5476-516: Was invented by Alexander Parkes , an English metallurgist . In 1856, he patented Parkesine , a celluloid based on nitrocellulose treated with a variety of solvents. This material, exhibited at the 1862 London International Exhibition, anticipated many of the modern aesthetic and utility uses of plastics. The industrial production of soap from vegetable oils was started by William Lever and his brother James in 1885 in Lancashire based on

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