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Air quality is a term used to describe how polluted the air people breath is. When air quality is poor, pollutants in the air may be hazardous to people, particularly those with lung or heart conditions.

Any trade or business that produces liquid waste matter in the course of carrying out its trade or business is producing a trade effluent. Effluents may be discharged to the sewerage system or, in some circumstances, directly to a watercourse, groundwater or the sea. Discharge to sewer and discharge to water are covered by different legislative regimes.

Groundwater is a major national resource. In Britain, 20 times more water is stored in underground aquifers than in surface water reservoirs and lakes. Groundwater provides three-quarters of public water supplies in South-East England and 35% of supplies in England as a whole. In Scotland for example, there are around 30,000 private groundwater sources, many supplying individual properties. Groundwater is used to irrigate crops and water livestock, as well as provide drinking water for humans.

Waste material in industrial and commercial organisations can be reused directly within the organisation itself, reused by third parties, repaired or refurbished prior to reuse or recycled into further products.

Pollution of a watercourse, groundwater or the sea (controlled waters) by oil is a common type of water pollution incident dealt with by the environment agencies. Many such incidents are caused by leaks and spills from storage facilities, eg unbunded storage tanks.

A circular economy is a closed-loop management system designed to improve resource productivity and eliminate waste by keeping resources, products and materials in the system for as long as possible and extracting the maximum value from them while in use.