A Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) is a publicly accessible database or inventory of chemicals or pollutants released to air, water and soil and transferred off-site for treatment. It brings together information about which chemicals are being released, where, how much and by whom. Reporting can be both on emissions from fixed sources (e.g., factory smokestacks) as well as from diffuse sources (e.g., mobile sources such as automobiles, trucks, aircraft and trains). The OECD assists countries in the development, implementation and the improvement of PRTR national programmes.

In support of the objective to reduce the overall pollution of industrial production processes and improve their environmental performance, the OECD sets out to strengthen the performance of Best Available Techniques (BAT) policies and practices around the world by exchanging best practices amongst countries that already have a BAT-based policy in place, and by providing guidance to governments considering adopting a BAT-based approach.  

This interactive table provides a clearinghouse of guidance manuals and documents on release estimation techniques available from the principal pollutant release and transfer registries developed by OECD member countries. The manuals and documents include descriptive information on the sources of pollution and the pollutants that are released into the environment, as well as information on emission factors, mass balance methods, engineering calculations, and monitoring information. To assist countries in the development, implementation, and the improvement of PRTR programmes, links to PRTR guidance documents are also provided.

The interactive database below compiles good practices of the data uses and tools for their presentation, which were gathered from member countries. It could illustrate the varied uses of PRTR data and encourage additional audiences to access PRTR data.

The examples of the data uses were classified by; 1. Policymaking, 2. Environmental Performance Assessment, 3. Risk Assessment, 4. Education and Research, 5. Environmental Justice, and 6. Building Partnerships/Supporting Public Trust.

The examples of PRTR data tools are sorted by; 1. Presentation of PRTR data, 2. Ranking, 3. Geographic Information Systems/Mapping, 4. Toxicity Weighting, 5. Data Visualisations.

You can find detailed information in the published document..

If you would like to submit new resources for PRTR data usage and presentation tools, kindly provide the necessary information through this form.

The Centre for PRTR Data provides national PRTR data from OECD countries in a single dashboard, with Japan serving as the lead country responsible for maintaining the website. All data can also be downloaded here in CSV format (2001-2010, 2011-latest). 

The Centre for PRTR Data aims at sharing PRTR data within the OECD member countries as widely as possible. It compiles PRTR data on a national or regional level and does not include PRTR data of individual sites of facilities.

Users should note that;

-The data displayed in the system are based on the data provided voluntarily by member countries.

-The data displayed are not strictly comparable due to differences among PRTRs such as target substances, target industries, types of releases and transfers, etc.

- For such differences, the following OECD resources as well as the websites of member countries can be referred to;

• List of pollutants/reporting sectors
• Guidance documents on elements of a PRTR

This interactive table has been developed and is maintained by Japan as a project in the OECD Working Party on PRTRs. The database is to be updated regularly to include new data. The Working Party on PRTRs is interested in obtaining your feedback to improve this database. You can provide your comments and suggestions by using the Contact Us feature.

This website provides a global portal to PRTR information and activities from countries and organisations around the world. The website aims to assist countries in the development, implementation and improvement of PRTR programmes.

It has been developed and is maintained by the OECD, in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations Environment Programme / GRID-Arendal.

Check out our publications on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) and on Best Available Techniques.