Information on pollutants and waste from large companies now visible on the Internet

Bern, 19.02.2009 - Switzerland has made an international commitment to provide public access to information about pollutant releases and transfers. Starting today, data reported for 2007 by approximately 200 facilities can be viewed on the Internet site of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).

The Federal Office for the Environment’s new environmental information system known as the Swiss Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, or the SwissPRTR for short, is now available to the public at www.environment-switzerland.ch/swissprtr. It provides information about releases and transfers of pollutants and waste from facilities and diffuse sources. The SwissPRTR helps inform the public about the state of the environment and reduce environmental pollution in Switzerland.

This new instrument is intended to create transparency and promote the communication based on accurate information. The management of facilities subject to report requirement can compare their own data with that of other facilities. This may help companies decide whether they must take further measures in order to fulfil their responsibility towards their employees and society in general. Furthermore, better knowledge of the relations between operational processes, the use of certain chemicals and the resulting releases of pollutants or production of waste can favour innovations and help find ways of cutting costs.

Authorities can use the register as an instrument to control the sustainable management of pollutant releases and of transfers of waste and pollutants into waste water. The overview that the SwissPRTR offers on the spatial and temporal distribution of pollutant releases can help to plan long-term pollutant reduction measures and aid surveillance and control efforts.

The register currently contains data for 200 companies and 86 pollutants as well as information about transfers of hazardous and non hazardous waste. It will be updated every year.

The legal basis for the SwissPRTR is the Ordinance of 15 December 2006 on the Register relating to Pollutant Release and the Transfer of Waste and of Pollutants in Waste Water.


Address for enquiries

Address for enquiries:
Georg Karlaganis, Director, FOEN Substances, Soil, Biotechnology Division, +41 79 415 99 62
Christoph Moor, FOEN Biotechnology and Substance Flows Section, +41 31 322 93 84



Publisher

Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
https://www.bafu.admin.ch/en

https://www.admin.ch/content/gov/en/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-25423.html