It pays to clean up, pollution study says

Industries controlling their pollution save million of dollars, and campanies even make sizable profits by recycling their wastes, the International Labor Organization reports.

An ILO special consultant said antipollution activities are profitable and could help companies grow.

The Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company started acting on the concept that "pollution prevention pays" some five years ago, he said.

"As a result, in 1979 in the United States alone, instead of its pollution-control activities costing money, they actually saved $20 million," he said.

Of the French companies introducing clean technology, he said, 68 percent ended up with lower production costs than when they ran their origi nal polluting processes.