Mobile and non-industrial sources

Industrial facilities are not the only source of pollutant emissions. Many household and transport-related activities are also major contributors to the total amount of pollution emitted to the air, land and water. These sources of emissions are included on the NPI database to ensure that the community is aware that their everyday activities have an impact on the environment.

Emissions from household and transport-related activities will be estimated by the State and Territory environment authorities. The environment authority in each jurisdiction forwards its estimates of emissions from non-industrial sources to the Department of the Environment and Heritage, so that this data can be included on the NPI.

Estimates of emissions of the substances listed on the NPI from the following household activities may be included on the database:

lawn mowing (and other small petrol engined tools)
domestic wood combustion
consumer use of solvents, such as hair spray and car tyre blacker
cigarette smoking
architectural surface coating.

Estimates of emissions of the substances listed on the NPI from the following transport-related activities will be on the database:

motor vehicles
aircraft
ships
pleasure craft

To improve the accuracy of the overall picture of emissions on the NPI database, work on developing techniques for estimating the emissions from other identifiable area-based sources has been completed. Some examples of these other area-based sources of pollutants are:

urban emissions to watercourses
road marking services
cut back bitumen
bush fires and controlled agricultural/forest burning