Glossary of Terms
Facilities report the amounts of each pollutant they have released to the environment at their own location (on-site). They also report how much of the chemical was sent off-site for disposal, recycling or other waste management.
On-site releases
Releases that occur at a facility, that is, pollutants that are released into the air or water, injected into underground wells, or put in landfills "inside the fence line."
Off-site releases
Waste sent to another facility for disposal on land, in landfills or by underground injection. These methods are the same as on-site releases, but they occur at locations other than at the originating facility.
Transfers to recycling
Pollutants sent off-site for recycling.
Transfers for further management
Pollutants (other than metals) sent for treatment and energy recovery and to sewage treatment plants.
An important note: "Transfers of metals off-site" for disposal, sewage, treatment or energy recovery are included in the off-site releases category. The US TRI classifies all transfers of metals as "transfers to disposal," because metals sent to energy recovery, treatment or sewage treatment may be captured and removed from waste and disposed of in landfills or by other disposal methods. Although this approach may be confusing to those accustomed to seeing the term releases used to describe activities on-site and transfers used to describe all activities that occur off-site, the categorization used in Taking Stock allows the CEC to compare data from the three countries. It also aggregates similar activities?for example, all pollutants sent to landfills are called "releases," regardless of where the landfill is located. This approach also recognizes the physical nature of metals, and acknowledges that metals sent to disposal, sewage, treatment or energy recovery are not likely to be destroyed, and therefore they may eventually enter the environment.
Because this terminology is specific to Taking Stock, the terms release, disposal and transfer as defined here may differ from their use in the NPRI, RETC and TRI.