Final answer:
Effective ways to reduce pollution include taxing high polluters, encouraging recycling, and using clean energy sources. Taxing creates a financial incentive for firms to reduce their emissions or face a tax, leading to cost-effective pollution reduction.
Step-by-step explanation:
Similar to the strategies for reducing the production of other hazardous materials, pollution can be reduced by taxing the greatest polluters, promoting recycling of pollutants, choosing non-polluting energy sources, or dispersing pollutants over a wider area. However, not all of these methods are equally effective or desirable. Option a, taxing the greatest polluters, incentivizes firms to seek out the least expensive technologies for reducing pollution. Firms that can curb pollution inputs cheaply will minimize pollution taxes, while those facing high abatement costs may pay the tax. This approach ensures no special exemptions for well-connected producers and drives reductions of pollution at firms where it is most cost-effective. Options b and c offer proactive ways to handle and prevent pollution, with recycling turning waste into reusable materials and clean energy sources preventing pollution from occurring in the first place. Conversely, dispersing pollutants over a wider area (option d) is not a sustainable solution, as it does not reduce the overall amount of pollution and can lead to wider environmental degradation.