Final answer:
The true statement is that preventing pollution by designing non-toxic products is a more sustainable solution than pollution cleanup. This aligns with green chemistry principles and the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, which fosters designs that reduce or eliminate pollution from the beginning. Thus, the correct answer is option a.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement "Preventing pollution by designing products made of nontoxic materials is a more sustainable solution than pollution cleanup" is TRUE. Implementing strategies such as green chemistry, which seeks to minimize the use and generation of hazardous substances, aligns with the principles of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. This approach is not just about cleaning up pollution, but about avoiding it from the start by designing materials that can break down into benign substances naturally. Such practices consider the environmental services that ecosystems provide, like water purification and carbon sequestration, and aim to protect and enhance them by preventing pollution before it occurs.
Contrarily, pouring oil down a stormwater drain is not a safe way to dispose of it and is extremely harmful to the environment by damaging these valuable environmental services. Industrial ecosystems refer to a collaboration among different industry sectors, often using each other's by-products as resources, rather than simply competing for resources. Lastly, the laws of matter and energy are fundamental principles that most definitely apply to environmental processes, governing everything from chemical cycles to energy flows in ecosystems.