Prevention includes a number of approaches.

Education is a primary preventive strategy. This includes educating individuals, groups, and communities on environmental concepts and ways to prevent environmental problems.

Waste minimization efforts are directed at minimizing the volume of hazardous waste that must be disposed. The challenge is for Individuals and industries to find uses for waste. One industry's waste can become someone else's raw material, with economic benefits to both. One person’s garbage can become another’s compost.

Land use planning is a third effective prevention strategy. Authority for land use planning and zoning usually resides with local, city and county governments. Livable and sustainable communities require: (1) conscientious and thoughtful attention to divisions between industrial and residential areas; (2) preservation of green space with parks, greenways, and land trusts; and (3) limits on the types of industries recruited and welcomed. Transportation systems are a part of land use planning.