Report: U.S. Manufacturers Spending Billions on Pollution Prevention
The U.S. manufacturing sector spent $5.9 billion dollars on capital expenditures and $20.7 billion dollars on operating costs for pollution prevention and treatment in 2005. These figures represent less than five percent of total new capital expenditures and less than one percent of total revenue for the sector, respectively. The estimates, which to EPA's knowledge are the most comprehensive publicly available, were reported this week in a U.S. Census report, "Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures (PACE): 2005."
The PACE report is the latest in a series conducted since 1973 to assess annual costs for pollution abatement by the manufacturing sector. This is the first year of data since EPA, in consultation with U.S. Census, began a multi-year effort to evaluate the quality of the survey instrument, and the accuracy and reliability of the data collected in the survey responses. As a result, an improved survey was developed by EPA and administered by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2006 to collect the 2005 expenditure data.
The report provides additional details on pollution abatement expenditures, categorized by type of pollution media and abatement activity by industry and state. The reported costs include capital and operating costs for treatment/capture, prevention, recycling, and disposal, as well as depreciation of pollution abatement equipment. For more information on the 2005 PACE data, including the efforts to evaluate the data and redevelop the 2005 survey, visit http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eed.nsf/pages/pace2005.html.