Pharmaceutical firms have claimed in journal article publications that implementation of green chemistry practices in their manufacturing processes have significantly reduced the quantities of toxic chemicals they use, release to the environment, or otherwise manage as waste. Using the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) database and literature publications, analyses were conducted to assess this claim. The analyses show that over the 2002 through 2011 timeframe the quantities of toxic chemicals reported annually by pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities to EPA’s TRI Program as released to the environment or otherwise managed as waste have declined steadily and by more than 60%. The large reductions in the reported quantities are sector-wide, and it appears that factors such as outsourcing, production levels, regulations, shifts to other waste management practices, or TRI reporting characteristics by the larger pharmaceutical firms are not driving the decline. The authors concluded that the TRI, an easy-to-use pollution prevention tool used extensively for tracking environmental performance, is uniquely well-suited for assessing the progress made by different industry sectors or specific facilities therein in implementing green chemistry practices and the effectiveness that such practices have in preventing pollution: uses of the TRI that hitherto have not been reported. Moreover, the findings indicate that other pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) may have the potential to be used for these purposes as well.
Chapter 22 - The Environmental Impact of Pollution Prevention, Sustainable Energy Generation, and Ot...
Chapter 6 - The Environmental Impact of Pollution Prevention and Other Sustainable Development Strat...
On the Design of Safer Chemicals: A Path Forward
The Impact of Pollution Prevention on Toxic Environmental Releases from U.S. manufacturing Facilitie...
The Utility of the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) in Tracking Implementation and Environmental Impact...
Addressing Industry Concerns Related to Pollutant Release and Transfer
Addressing Industry Concerns Related to Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
Addressing Industry Concerns Related to PRTRs, UNITAR Series of PRTR Technical Support Materials, No...
Collection of International Guidance Materials on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
Comparison of Emission Estimation Methods used in Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers and Emiss...
Considerations for Ensuring Quality PRTR Data, Series on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers No...
Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice i...
Designing the Key Features of a National Pollutant Release and Transfer Register System
Designing the Key Features of a National PRTR System
Designing the Key Features of a National PRTR System, UNITAR Guidance Series for Implementing a Nati...
Framework for Selecting and Applying PRTR Release Estimation Techniques, Series on Pollutant Release...
Framework on the Role of Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) in Global Sustainability A...
Global Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, Proposal for a Harmonised List of Pollutants, Series...
Guidance Document for the Implementation of the European PRTR
Guidance for Facilities on PRTR Data Estimation and Reporting
Guidance for Facilities on PRTR Data Estimation and Reporting, UNITAR Series of PRTR Technical Suppo...
Guidance on Elements of a PRTR: Part I, Series on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers No. 17
Guidance on Elements of a PRTR: Part II, Series on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers No. 18
Guidance on Estimating Non-Point Source Emissions
Guidance on Estimating Non-Point Source Emissions
Guidance on Estimating Non-Point Source Emissions, UNITAR Series of PRTR Technical Support Materials...
Guidance on Implementation of the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
Guidance on PRTR Data Estimation and Reporting
How PRTRs differ: A review of National Programmes, Series on Pollutant Release and Transfer Register...
Implementing a National PRTR Design Project
Implementing a National PRTR Design Project: A Guidance Document
Implementing a Pollutant Release a Transfer Register Pilot Reporting
Implementing a PRTR Pilot Reporting Trial, UNITAR Guidance Series for Implementing a National PRTR D...
Implementing a PRTR Reporting Trial
National PRTR Executive Proposal of the Kingdom of Cambodia
National PRTR Executive Proposal of the Republic of Kazakhstan
National PRTR Executive Proposal of the Republic of Moldova
National Strategy for Public Access to Environmental Information and PRTR data of the Kingdom of Cam...
National Strategy for Public Access to Environmental Information and PRTR data of the Republic of Ka...
National Strategy for Public Access to Environmental Information and PRTR data of the Republic of Mo...
National Strategy for Public Access to Environmental Information and PRTR data of the Republic of Pe...
Peru’s National Executive Proposal
Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers: A Tool for Environmental Policy and Sustainable Developmen...
Preparing a National Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Infrastructure Assessment
Preparing a National PRTR Infrastructure Assessment
Preparing a National PRTR Infrastructure Assessment, UNITAR Guidance Series for Implementing a Natio...
Presentation and Dissemination of PRTR Data: Getting the Word and Numbers Out, Series on Pollutant R...
Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers to the Convention on Access to Information, Pub...
Report of the National PRTR Inception Workshop of the Kingdom of Cambodia
Report of the National PRTR Inception Workshop of the Republic of Belarus
Report of the National PRTR Inception Workshop of the Republic of Ecuador
Report of the National PRTR Inception Workshop of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Report of the National PRTR Inception Workshop of the Republic of Moldova
Report of the National PRTR Inception Workshop of the Republic of Peru
Resource Compendium of PRTR Release Estimation Techniques Part IV: Summary of Tehcniques for Estimat...
Resource Compendium of PRTR release estimation techniques, Part II: Summary of Diffuse Source Techni...
Resource Compendium of PRTR Release Estimation Techniques, Part III: Summary of Techniques for Estim...
Resource Compendium of PRTR release estimation techniques, Part III: Summary of Techniques for off-s...
Revision of the Resource Compendium of PRTR release estimation techniques, Part 1: Summary of Techni...
Scoping Study on the Inclusion of Releases and Transfers from Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SM...
Structuring a National PRTR Proposal
Structuring a National PRTR Proposal, UNITAR Guidance Series for Implementing a National PRTR Design...
Use of PRTRs data and tools for their presentation: A Reference Manual, Series on Pollutant Release ...