The scientific character of green chemistry has been a matter of dispute since its inception. This book aims to clarify that dispute. Author Johan Alfredo Linthorst presents a historical analysis of the birth and evolution of green chemistry, with a special focus on the USA, the UK and the Netherlands and the chemical societies in these countries.
This article provides an overview of the origins and development of green chemistry. Aiming to contribute to the understanding of green chemistry, basically from a historical point of view, this overview argues that contextual influences and the user friendliness of the term are drivers for the explosive growth of green chemistry. It is observed that political support for its development has been significant, in which the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 was a formal political starting-point, but informally the origins of green chemistry go back to before 1990.