Pollution Report Points to Landfills

Danielle Jackson

Toronto — According to a report recently conducted by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), factories, plants and other industrial operations in the American states of Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana, as well as Ontario, Canada, are the biggest polluters in North America.

Additionally, the report shows that industrial pollution has declined by about 3 percent in the past few years, but producers have sent more pollutants to landfills and other offsite facilities to compensate. While there was a decrease in air pollution, the amounts released into the water and ground or sent to landfills all increased, the report states.

The study made no distinction for greenhouse gases, the target of emission reductions demanded by the Kyoto Protocol, which the U.S. has rejected because it said the Protocol was harmful to the economy.