Printing and Publishing – ChemTRAC Reporting Tools

The ChemTRAC program is temporarily suspended, effective May 18, 2020 and will not be able to accept annual reports or provide support to facilities.

You may use the following assessment process for ChemTRAC reporting.

You May Be Required to Report

IF

Your facility is located in Toronto

and

You do one or more of the following activities:

  • Lithography
  • Offset printing
  • Photocopying
  • Word press
  • Binding and gluing
  • Using cleaning material or chemicals that contain VOCs

 

Go To Step 2

You are Not Required to Report 

IF

Your facility is NOT located in Toronto

or

You only do one or more of the following activities:

  • Office activities
  • Retail
  • Digital printing
  • Drawing and design
  • Distribution and sale of printed products
  • Operating a warehouse

 

 

 

To help you estimate the amounts you need to report to ChemTRAC, Toronto Public Health has developed calculators* that you can use. These can be opened using Microsoft Excel or a free office suite such as OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) or LibreOffice (www.libreoffice.org).

These documents may not be fully AODA** compliant. For accessible formats or communication support, please contact ChemTRAC (email chemtrac@toronto.ca or call 416-338-7600).

You may download the calculators related to your business processes. If you use more than one calculator, you may use the “Calculation of Totals” calculator to add up the use and release amounts.

Tips:

If you have used more than 360 L (95 gallons) of inks in a lithography process per year, then you may have reached the reporting threshold for VOCs.

Process Calculators Guide
Printing and Publishing Printing (Excel) Guide
Photocopying Photocopiers (Excel)
Using of solvents, cleaning material or any chemicals that contain VOCs Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) (Excel) Guide
If you have one or more dust collectors Dust collectors (Excel)
Process heating
If you use 2 or more calculators Calculation of totals (Excel)

(Add the results from output summary tables of two or more calculators into this calculator to find the total amounts and identify if any chemical meets the reporting thresholds)

*See “Notes about the Calculators” on this page** Accessibility of Ontarians Disabilities Act  (AODA)

You are required to keep the following records and supporting documents for 5 years, including:

  • Calculation files
  • Summary of the amounts of ink, cleaning materials, solvents or other chemicals used and contain VOCs in a reporting year, along with their Safety Data Sheets (SDS)
  • Specification sheets for dust collectors to show the air flow rates and for filters to show the efficiencies if any
  • The natural gas bills for the reporting year, if you used natural gas for any process heating
  • Confirmation page that you printed after submitting your report (see step 4)

Compare the results for each chemical (from the Output Summary table in the calculators) with corresponding thresholds in the appropriate reporting categories “as listed below”.

Chemical Name Sources Threshold (kg/yr) Category
Volatile organic compounds totals (VOCs) Ink, cleaning material, solvents, other chemicals that contain VOCs; natural gas combustion 100 Released to Air
Benzene Ink, ink solvents, cleaning agents 100 Processed, Otherwise used
Dichloromethane (Methylene chloride) Waste solvent 100 Otherwise used
Formaldehyde Ink, ink solvents 100 Processed, Otherwise used
Lead and its compounds Ink, natural gas combustion 10 Processed
Manganese and its compounds Ink, natural gas combustion 10 Processed
Nickel and its compounds Ink, natural gas combustion 100 Processed
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) Natural gas you have used to provide heat for your processes 200 Released to Air
Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) Binding, cutting, natural gas combustion 30 Released to Air
Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) Waste solvent 100 Otherwise used

 

For more chemicals please check the “Complete List”.

Reporting Deadline is June 30th Each Year

Submit your Report if any of the amounts are equal to or exceed the reporting thresholds

or

if all of the amounts are below the reporting threshold, you may submit a report as a below threshold facility.

Reminder: Print the confirmation page after submitting your report and keep it for 5 years.

323113 – Commercial Screen Printing

323114 – Quick Printing

323115 – Digital Printing

323120 – Support Activities for Printing

511130 – Book Publishers

511140 – Database and Directory publishers

511190 – Other Publishers

511210 – Software Publishers

 

For other North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes please check the “Statistics Canada” website

The calculators listed above are the most current versions. It is strongly recommended to download the calculator each time you use it.

The above calculators can help you identify which priority substances (chemicals) your facility uses or releases, and estimate the amounts of these chemicals to see if you need to report to the Environmental Reporting and Disclosure Bylaw. Depending on the processes your business uses, you may need to use more than one of the calculators in Step 2 – if this is the case, you can add up the amounts using the “Calculation of Totals” calculator.

These calculators are provided solely as an aid. They may not apply to all or parts of your business operations. You can choose to use these calculators or other tools to estimate chemical use and emissions. The City of Toronto makes no representation or warranty as to the applicability of these tools to your facility or to your obligation to comply with the Environmental Reporting and Disclosure Bylaw (Municipal Code Chapter 423). It is the responsibility of each facility owner or operator to take the necessary steps to ensure compliance with the bylaw.