Environment : Toxic Waste

The GSG report called for a 50% reduction of toxic wastes in 2025 increasing to 90% in 2050. Toxic wastes refer to the heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants used and released during industrial processes. A comparison of the OECD data reveals that these industrial wastes continue increasing as envisaged in the Reference scenario and there are not many indications of a decrease as required in the Policy Reform. Of course some countries have made progress but on the whole the trend is towards increasing release of toxic substances.