Environmental performance and compliance costs for industrial wastewater treatment – an international comparison

Investment in environmental protection, in connection with all productive investments in industrial processes and plants, is obligatory and routine in industrialized and high-income countries. The quality of the environmental regulatory system, including regulatory stringency, has been found to have a connection with national wealth. In this study, the relationships between environmental performance, the cost of environmental protection and the wealth of nations are examined by using international statistics on industry, economics and the environment. Environmental performance is studied using data on emissions of organic water pollutants resulting from industrial activities as well as the investments and current expenditure on wastewater management in selected countries. Variations in environmental performance discovered among countries are both absolute and relative with respect to the level of expected BOD intensity based on the wealth of these countries. The costs of wastewater management to Finnish industry are presented.