European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)

The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) is an inventory of emissions from a number of activities in relation to a specified list of pollutants. The E-PRTR supersedes the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER). EPER was the first European-wide register of industrial emissions into air and water, which was established by a Commission Decision of 17 July 2000 (EPER Decision). Under EPER, Member States reported data for the years 2001 and 2004. E-PRTR builds on the same principles as EPER but goes beyond it, by including reporting on more pollutants from more activities, and includes releases to land, releases from diffuse sources and off-site transfers of wastes and effluents.

The E-PRTR covers the 27 EU Member States as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

The register contains annual data reported by some 24,000 industrial facilities covering 65 economic activities within the following 9 industrial sectors:

• energy
• production and processing of metals
• mineral industry
• chemical industry
• waste and waste water management
• paper and wood production and processing
• intensive livestock production and aquaculture
• animal and vegetable products from the food and beverage sector, and
• other activities

Data is provided in the register for 91 pollutants falling under the following 7 groups:

• the facility falls under at least one of the 65 E-PRTR economic activities listed in Annex I of the E-PRTR Regulation and exceeds at least one of the E-PRTR capacity thresholds.
• the facility transfers waste off-site which exceed specific thresholds set out in Article 5 of the Regulation.
• The facility releases pollutants which exceed specific thresholds specified for each media - air, water and land - in Annex II of the E-PRTR Regulation.

Learn more

• Read the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (2008/1/EC).
• Check the EC Guidance Document for E-PRTR implementation. This provides general information on what E-PRTR is, the substances covered, the reporting thresholds etc.
• Download a list of pollutants and EPER reporting thresholds.
• Check out the 2007-2008 E-PRTR data sets