Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory: 2021 data highlights

The National Pollutant Release Inventory’s (NPRI) data helps track pollution patterns and trends across Canada. Since 1993, it has collected data from facilities about pollutants they release to the air, water and land. The NPRI also collects data about the disposal and transfer of pollutants. Facilities that meet the reporting requirements must report each year.

2021 data at a glance

In 2021, 7,191 facilities reported to the NPRI. They reported approximately 4.99 million tonnes covering over 320 substances:

• 2.92 million tonnes of pollutants were released directly to the environment (i.e., air, water and land)
• 1.73 million tonnes were disposed to landfills, applied to land or injected underground, either on the facility site or off-site
• 340,461 tonnes were transferred off the facility site for treatment prior to final disposal or for recycling and energy recovery

Between 2012 and 2021, reported releases to the environment decreased by 503,403 tonnes. Total disposals and transfers increased by 457,674 tonnes in that period.

Other releases

In some instances, Canadian facilities report total releases of substances. This category applies where the media (i.e., air, water, land) of the release is unspecified and where the total release quantity was less than one tonne.

Between 2012 and 2021, these types of releases decreased by 116.4 tonnes (27.6%).

Disposals and transfers for recycling

Of the 4.99 million tonnes of total substances reported for 2021, substance disposals (i.e., on-site and off-site) and transfers for recycling accounted for approximately 2.07 million tonnes, or 44%.

The disposal of substances in waste rock (i.e., rock removed to reach ore) accounted for 388,645 tonnes of the 2.07 million tonnes of substance disposals and transfers for recycling reported to the NPRI. This figure increased by 356,951 tonnes (1,226%) between 2012 and 2021, mainly due to higher reported quantities of substances contained in waste rock from the mining and quarrying sector.

The disposal of substances in tailings (i.e., materials left when minerals are removed from ore) accounted for 896,086 tonnes of the 2.07 million tonnes reported to the NPRI. Between 2012 and 2021, disposals of substances in tailings increased by 223,502 tonnes (33.2%).

Other disposals (i.e., on-site and off-site) accounted for 289,418 tonnes and 154,990 tonnes of the 2.07 million tonnes reported, respectively. On-site disposals increased by 51,522 tonnes (21.7%) between 2012 and 2021 and off-site disposals decreased by 155,674 tonnes (50%) over the same period.

Off-site transfers for recycling and treatment accounted for 340,461 tonnes of the 2.07 million tonnes reported for 2021 disposals and transfers. Between 2012 and 2021, this figure decreased by 18,628 tonnes (5%).

Note: In some cases, adding quantities of a substance transferred off-site (e.g., to specialized waste management facilities) to quantities of that substance disposed of (e.g., by the waste management facility) can lead to double counting. This may occur when a substance is generated at one site, then transferred to another site for waste treatment prior to disposal, and subsequently transferred to a final disposal site. In this case, double- or triple-counting of the original off-site transfer may occur due to aggregating reports from multiple facilities involved in the waste management process of a single quantity of substance. For more information, please visit our Guide for using and interpreting National Pollutant Release Inventory data.

Map of facilities reporting to the NPRI for 2020, by industry sector

Note: This map shows the NPRI reporting facilities for 2021 (7,191 facilities), excluding those that did not meet the reporting criteria (1,067 facilities).

Regional overview

Effects of COVID-19

Facilities reported 1,605 shutdown periods to the NPRI in 2021, a reduction from 2,094 shutdowns in 2020. Facilities are not required to explain why they shutdown, so we cannot determine with any certainty if shutdowns were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in the report comments, 30 facilities indicated that they had temporarily shut down due to the pandemic, compared to 205 in 2020.

The key industrial sectors that reported the largest number of COVID-19-related shutdowns are:

• Transportation Equipment Manufacturing – 10 (33%)
• Other Manufacturing – 6 (20%)
• Wood Products – 5 (17%)

Similarly to 2020, the pandemic has put pressure on many manufacturing facilities reporting to the NPRI. Prices for products manufactured in Canada have increased since the beginning of the pandemic. In particular, the price of lumber and other wood products has increased significantly as a result of the pandemic and other factors, contributing to the imbalance in wood supply and demand.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on releases of pollutants has been less pronounced in 2021, with many facilities returning to pre-pandemic levels of releases and fewer reported shutdowns. Notably, 2020 saw a significant decrease in ethylene glycol releases, mainly from airports’ use of this substance as a de-icer. From the beginning of the pandemic, aircraft movements at major Canadian airports and the number of passengers travelling by air dropped drastically. A decrease in airport activity may therefore have explained the changes observed in the NPRI data. However, releases of ethylene glycol from airports have increased to near 2019 levels in 2021.

Pollution prevention plans

Pollution prevention involves identifying ways to minimize the causes of waste and pollution.  A facility’s pollution prevention plan includes an examination of current operations and steps to eliminate or reduce pollution at its source.

932^{Footnote 1}  reporting facilities had pollution prevention plans in place in 2021. Of these plans:

• 610 were prepared voluntarily
• 385 were prepared to meet the requirements of provincial or territorial governments
• 105 were prepared to meet the requirements of a notice under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (e.g., the pollution prevention planning notice for toluene diisocyanates)

Pollution prevention activities

3055 facilities (42% of reporting facilities) reported 4580 pollution prevention activities to the NPRI. Facilities can implement activities stemming from seven main categories to prevent pollution. For 2021, the most common activity category was “good operating practice or training”, with 2262 activities completed. The second most common activity was “spill and leak prevention”, with 766 activities completed.

Activities reported by sector for 2021

To learn more about the P2 categories and for examples of actions facilities have implemented, see "How to green your business by preventing pollution".

Pollution prevention activities were implemented for 181 substances (81% of substances reported to the NPRI) in the 2021 reporting year. The substances with the greatest number of pollution prevention activities implemented are Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

4,210^{Footnote 2}  facilities (58% of reporting facilities) declared not having implemented activities in the 2021 reporting year. Barriers to implementation included:

• unknown or unavailable alternatives (1,260 facilities)
• additional activities being unnecessary of unfeasible at this time (1,104 facilities)
• insufficient understanding of pollution prevention (470 facilities)
• insufficient capital (377 facilities);
• concern that product quality may decline as a result of activities (146 facilities);
• other reasons (1,116 facilities).

Access NPRI data

Download the complete NPRI data in various formats from the Government of Canada open data portal and the NPRI datasets webpage.

We invite you to contact the National Pollutant Release Inventory by email at inrp-npri@ec.gc.ca if you would like more information or if you have any questions on the data.

Source: NPRI Data as of September 29, 2022