A Study on Innovation in Waste Management in Tirunelveli District

This paper explores whether there are discernible differences in the environment innovation and performance of chemical firms that can be explained by differences in the management practices and characteristics of the firms. Using data from a firm visits, and phone interviews, this research assesses the pervasiveness of the adoption of environmental management practices. It also assesses whether the adoption of these practices is related to leadership in environmental innovation and performance. This paper shows high levels of adoption of several practices for improving environmental innovation and performance. Firms are using practices such as total quality management, certification of suppliers, R&D, and the involvement of employees in innovation and training to integrate environmental management with their production systems. In addition, firms with the highest adoption levels of environmental practices have substituted cleaner materials and changed their production processes for cleaner production, and they are leaders in reducing their generation of chemical waste. Hence the study was made in the tirunelveli area and 80 respondents were randomly selected for the study.