Experiences from the pilot project and further development

Yuko Yamashita 山下裕子

Engagement with PRTR bydifferent stakeholders

Period Stakeholders Engagement with PRTR

1994 -Japan Chemical Industry Association

・ Produced the manual to calculate the amount of chemical substances released to the environment

・ Started its own PRTR (continued to date)

Japan Paint Manufacturers Association;

Japan Printing Ink Makers Association

・ Produced the standard contents of paints

・ Produced the model contents of printing inks

1997 Nippon Keidanren ・ Started its own PRTR

1997 -Ministry of the Environment

・ Started the PRTR pilot project

Preparations for the pilot project（ 1996 - 1997)

Working group name Main tasks Members

Technical study group To study the contents of other WGs

・ Academic experts・ Industrial organizations・ Local authorities・ NGOs

Technical WG To examine chemical substances, framework for industry types, information gathering

Release estimate manual WG

To produce the manual to estimate release

Researches on chemical substances used & produced WG

To analyze the data in order to determine the scope of application in terms of facility size and amounts of use & production

Data compilation and publication WG

To examine how to compile the reported data, how to publish data

Manual for Release Estimate Methods – Overview

Main items Contents

1 How to determine the reporting requirement for enterprises

・ Scope of applicability: Industry types, number of employees・ Use of materials potentially containing the chemical substances covered by PRTR・ Scope of applicability: Amount of chemical substances used & produced per year

2 Understanding the calculations for release/transfer amounts

・ Concept of release/transfer amounts・ Main calculation methods

3 How to calculate the amounts of release/transfer

・ How to determine the amount of materials used/produced・ How to calculate the amount of release/transfer; Detailed explanations

4 How to calculate; examples for typical processes

Examples of release calculations in typical processes (coating, printing, etc.)

5 Others ・ List of chemical substances covered by PRTR, other basic information useful for calculation

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

1 -

9

10 -

29

30 -

99

100

- 29

9

300

- 99

9

over

100

0No. of employees per facility

Use

& p

rodu

ctio

n am

ount

(nat

iona

l)(t/

y）

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%

Cov

erag

e of

use

& p

rodu

ctio

nam

ount

(cu

mm

ulat

ive)

Use & productionamount (national)coverage

Setting the threshold for the amount of use & production

(Food industry)

Main issues during the pilot project・ Effectiveness of chemical substances covered by PRTR, capacity of enterprises to respond

・ Effectiveness of industry types covered by PRTR, effectiveness of threshold, capacity of enterprises to respond

・ Effectiveness of points of release/transfer determined by PRTR, further improvement

・ Problems of the manual for release estimate, further improvement

・ Points to be improved related to technical support

・ Points to be improved related to data compilation

Areas covered by the pilot project

FYNo. of local

authorities

Local authorities

(some parts of each)

Coverage out of Japan

Shipment price

(manufacturing)

Population

1997 3Kanagawa, Aichi, Kawasaki

7.2 % 2.5 %

1998 4 Kita-kyushu joined 8.1 % 3.4 %

1999 13Hokkaido, Miyagi, Tokyo joined

17.6 % 10.4 %

2000 30Ibaraki, Chiba, Nagano joined

20.4 % 15.6 %

2001 29（ Local authorities not included in FY2000 ） 10.0 % 12.5 %

Trends of no. of facilities

FYNo. of

facilitiesNo. of

responses

No. of facilities which

reported release/transf

er

１９９７

１，８１８ ９４３ ５０２

１９９８

２，０４０ １，１１０ ５８７

１９９９

８，４２５ ５，００９ １，８９１

２０００

１６，１４９ ７，４９９ ２，３２７

２００１

１１，６０２ ４，７６１ １，４７４

Development of framework(Chemical substances, industry types)

FY No. of chemical substances covered

No. of industry types covered

1997 178 36 mainly manufacturing

1998 176 ※ Chemical substances no longer

produced were taken out

33 ※ General construction, road passenger

transport, etc. were taken out

1999 No change 42 ※ Mining, fuel retailing, automobile

repair, etc. joined ※ Building maintenance etc. was taken

out

2000 354 ※ Same as the chemical substances

covered by the PRTR law

45 ※ Practically no change

2001 No change No change

Trends of scope of application(Facility size, amount used & produced per year)

FY Facility size(No. of employees)

Amount used/produced per

year

Main reporting items

1997 100 or 30 ※ Depending on the

industry type

0.1 ton or 10 tons ※ Depending on

the toxicity

・ Basic information of the enterprise・ Shipment price of the products・ Amount of release/transfer according to media・ Calculation methods・ Destinations and types of waste

1998 No change No change ・ Amounts used/produced were added

1999 20 or moreAll industry types

No change ・ Individual names of chemical substances were added in addition to chemical groups

2000 21 or moreAll industry types

1 ton or 0.5 ton ・ No. of employees was added

2001 No change No change ※ Shipment price of the products, and destinations of waste were taken out

Reporting form

at of the pilot project (F

Y 98)

整 理 番 号 対 象 化 学 物 質 名

ＣＡＳ Ｎｏ．

( ) kg/ ( ) kg/ (( )+( )) kg/生産量 ｱ 年 使用量 ｲ 年 取扱量 ｱ ｲ 年

（排出・移動量がゼロの場合は｢０｣と記入して下さい。）排 出 ・移 動 量

項 目 排 出 ・移 動 量 主 たる算 定 方 法 主 たる排 出 ・移 動 先( )①下 記 選 択 肢 の記 号 で記 入

(1)大 気 へ の排 出kg/年

(2)公 共 用 水 域 へ の排 出 河 川 又 はkg/年 海域名

(3)公 共 下 水 道 へ の排 出kg/年

(4)土 壌 へ の排 出kg/年

(5)廃棄物としての移動 都･道 ･府 ･県kg/年 市･区 ･町 ･村

廃棄物の種類・形態( )②下 記 選 択 肢 の記 号 で記 入

移動先での主な処分( )方 法 ③下 記 選 択 肢 の記 号 で記 入

(6)自 ら行 う廃 棄 物 のkg/管 理 型 埋 立 処 分 年

(7)リサイクル のためのkg/廃棄物移動 年

(8) (1) (7)～ の合 計kg/年

Amount used &produced

Survey items related to release/transfer(Extract from FY 1998 survey)

Item Amount of release/transfer

Main calculation methods

Main media of release

Release to the air kg/y

Release to the public waters

kg/y Name of the river/sea water

Transfer to sewage

kg/y

Release to the soil kg/y

Transfer as waste kg/y PrefectureCity

Controlled landfill of the waste

kg/y Type of waste

Transfer as waste for recycling

kg/y

Reporting items under the PRTR law

• Name, ID no. of the chemical substance• Amount of release (specify unit)

– To the air– To the public waters (specify names of river, lake, etc.)– To the soil within the site– Landfill after waste treatment within the site

• Amount of transfer (specify unit)– To the sewage– To others

Flowchart of the PRTR pilot project

GO

VE

RN

ME

NT

LO

CA

L A

UT

HO

RIT

IES

FAC

ILIT

IES

CO

NT

RA

CT

ED

R

ESE

AR

CH

INS

TIT

UT

ES

Send info Send info

Organize guidance meeting

Enquiry

EnquiryEnquiryEnquiry

Send compiled data

Send list of sites

Send data

Request for cross-check

Cross-check

Submit data

Check data

Rules of the PRTR law(Data submission via provinces)

Article 5. 3. The reports prescribed in the preceding

Paragraph … shall be submitted via the governors of the prefectures (i.e. local authorities) where the reporting businesses are located. The prefectural governors may add their opinions to the matters in such reports.

Manual for the operationsof the local authorities

Main contents

・ Preparation; providing information to facilities, preparations of materials

・ Data reception; checking formats, issuing certificates of reception

・ Checking the data; checking unusual data, requesting for correction

・ Transmission; sending the copies of reporting formats to the government

・ Forwarding requests from the government to the facilities

・ Others; procedures for data correction etc.

Main issues for implementing the pilot project and the PRTR law

• Reporting wrong data

　→ Must correct when serious errors are found out

　→ Important to gather experiences for checking unusual data

• Capacity for enterprises to respond

　→ During the pilot project, reporting “unknown amount” was allowed. (Not allowed under the PRTR law)

　→ Especially small and medium-sized enterprises need support

Main achievement of the pilot project I (Extract from the PRTR pilot project report 2001)

Finding out mistake patterns related to the reporting from facilities

Example 1: A facility reported a transfer of “vinyl chloride” by mistake. The mistake was found out because the type of waste was “waste plastics” and the amount was suspiciously large. Checking with the facility resulted in all polymers instead of vinyl chloride.

※ PRTR covers “vinyl chloride monomers” only

Main achievement of the pilot project IIProducing Q&A

＜ Example ＞Q: Do we report the metal compounds as the

compounds or do we have to convert them into other units?

A: Metal compounds should be converted into metal molecules. Their molecular contents are available in their MSDS. You should convert each molecule.

※ Necessary conversion tables are available in the manual.

Main achievement of the pilot project IIIRevising the Manual for release estimate

methods

→ Prioritizing small and medium-sized enterprises, and making it reader-friendly

→ Strengthening the resource materials useful for calculating the release amounts

Issue for the government I(Extract from the PRTR pilot project report 2001)

Providing information on PRTR ※ Only 18% of facilities “understood the PRTR well” including the PRTR law ※ Voluntary management of chemical substances cannot be promoted without understanding of the PRTR goals and purposes by the industries

Issue for the government II(Extract from the PRTR pilot project report 2001)

Support for small and medium-sized enterprises ※ Support to prevent wrong data reporting

※ Support to set up a mechanism for facilities to integrate the PRTR-related works within the daily works of MSDS and log books

Issue for the government III(Extract from the PRTR pilot project report 2001)

Strengthening the manual for release estimate ※ Strengthening the resource data (e.g. emission factors) useful for calculation ※ Providing information on the manuals produced by industry organizations which contain model release calculations typical to the respective industry.

Main revisions of the PRTR law (October 2009)(Examples)

Revised item Present After revision

No. of chemical substances covered by PRTR

354 462 ※ Taking out the pesticides which

have the registration periods already expired.

※ Adding the chemical substances which increased in production

※ Adding methyl naphtalene, Morpholine etc.

※ Other changes

No. of industry types covered by PRTR

45 Adding medical industry

Data publishing Compiled data only

All individual data

Examination to add industry typesIndustry types

(example candidates)

Estimated amount of

release (t/y)

Situations of use/production of chemical substances

Construction 54,900 Main activities are out of “facilities,” difficult to identify the place of release

Agriculture 36,900 Facility sizes are small

Fishery 2,300 Facility sizes are small

Building maintenance

2,000 Amount of use per facility is small

Aquaculture 1,800 Facility sizes are small

Timber tracts 300 Facility sizes are small

Medical 200 Uses highly hazardous chemical substances (e.g. ethylene oxide)