When it comes to the environment, many people like to think small is beautiful. But that might not be true, at least as far as polluters are concerned.
A new study being released today has come to the unexpected conclusion that the large companies in North America most environmentalists instinctively consider pollution villains have made huge strides in curbing the amount of harmful chemicals they dump into the air, water and land.
Meanwhile, companies with the largest emission increases are often little-noticed small and medium sized businesses.
The study, by the Commission for Environmental Co-operation, the Montreal-based pollution watchdog set up under NAFTA, made the discovery by comparing industrial releases of dangerous chemicals by companies in Canada and the U.S. from 1998 and 2004.
It found Canadian industrial facilities that reported emissions in 1998 of less than 10 tonnes — considered a relatively small amount of pollution — on average had emissions rise a staggering five fold over the period ending 2004.
By contrast, big sprawling facilities, such as chemical plants and pulp mills that typically release hundreds of tonnes up their stacks, cut emissions by 33 per cent. The same trend of dramatic pollution increases at smaller firms and reductions among larger business facilities was also in evident in the U.S.
The study, titled “Taking Stock,” is an analysis of the trend in North America's industrial pollution. It found the environment is getting modestly cleaner when it comes to smoke stack and water pipe emissions from factories. Harmful discharges declined by 15 per cent over the 1998 to 2004 period.
But when the CEC crunched pollution data for the sources of the improvement, it found the entire emission fall was due to abatement at industrial plants that are the largest generators of emissions.
“The evidence is clear that industry and government action to limit chemical releases is showing steady progress,” said Adrian Vazquez-Galvez, the CEC's executive director.
But he added that the “large number of small and medium-size industrial facilities need to do a better job in reducing their waste and emissions.”
The study's calculations were based on emission data companies divulge each year to Environment Canada and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It covers metals, such as mercury, solvents and dioxins, and dozens of other chemicals blamed for birth defects, cancer, and other ailments.
Mr. Vazquez-Galvez, in an interview, said he didn't know why corporate size had such a dramatic influence, although he said businesses that devote resources to develop pollution abatement plans generally have the best records.
Some environmentalists say the findings indicate the public and government need to be more alert to pollution from smaller companies.
“The mental image of pollution that most people carry around in their heads [is] a large spewing smokestack,” said Rick Smith, director of Environmental Defence, a conservation group. “Increasingly, dangerous pollution comes from smaller, more unobtrusive sources.”
In Canada, the trend identified by the CEC is clearly evident at the Lanxess Inc. rubber making plant in Sarnia.
In 1998, it released about 1,300 tonnes of pollution. By 2004, the figure was under 100 tonnes, much of it 1,3-butadiene, a carcinogen. The company, which used to be called Polysar, achieved the reduction in part by shutting a rubber making line built in the 1940s that was old and inefficient, according to Christopher Drope, manager of health, safety, and environment.
The company offset the shuttered operation by investing in new rubber making capacity, and added more sophisticated pollution abatement equipment to it. Lanxess doesn't reveal expenditures, but Mr. Drope said there was a “considerable capital investment.”
Even though the Lanxess facility is one of the world's biggest rubber manufacturing plants, the amount of pollution it produces isn't much more than a bathtub-making plant owned by Maax Canada Inc. in Airdie, Alta.
Pollution has been rising sharply at the facility. It rose from about 10 tonnes in 1998 to about 70 tonnes in 2004. The company reports emissions of styrene, a chemical linked to depression, nausea, and lung irritation.
Marc Brunet, Maax's environmental director, said he suspects the sales growth of small companies far outstrips larger businesses, causing the rise in pollutants. “I would say smaller companies have a bigger chance to growth than bigger ones. That's probably it,” he said. The plant hasn't exceeded discharge limits set by the province.
