Thresholds determine 1) the size of facilities that must report to a PRTR (e.g. facilities in the U.S. do not report if they have under 10 full-time equivalent employees) and 2) which chemicals they report (e.g. a facility might be required to a report a chemical if it released the chemical in quantities above the release threshold for that chemical). There are many considerations for determining reporting thresholds (e.g. setting threshold criteria, costs and benefits of thresholds, harmonising thresholds with other national reporting requirements, etc.) and further guidance on these considerations can be found in the references below.
For a cost-effective management scheme, you may wish to implement the next sub-element (Data Elements) or choose another element from the Management scheme elements list.
Relevant tools
- OECD: Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs): A Tool for Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development - Guidance Manual for Governments (1996)
- OECD: Scoping Study on the Inclusion of Releases and Transfers from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in PRTRs (2008)
- OECD: Guidance on Elements of a PRTR: Part I (2014)
- UNITAR and IOMC: Designing the Key Features of a National PRTR System, UNITAR Guidance Series for Implementing a National PRTR Design Project, Supplement 2 (1997)
- UNITAR, UNEP, and GEF: Final Meeting of the Steering Committee for the GEF Medium-sized project on “POPs Monitoring, Reporting and Information Dissemination using Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs)” (2012)