What are the top ten most polluting industries?

Question

What are the top ten most polluting industries?

Answer 1

fishing, wrestling, puppeteering, art, welly throwing, flare wearing, budgies, handshaking and geordies.

Answer 2

It depends a lot on the technology used and how you define most polluting.

Some industries have a relatively small amount of waste, but the waste may be incredibly toxic. Others may produce huge quantities of waste and either dispose of it thoughtfully, or just dump it in the environment.

I don't believe you could produce a list of ten industries that someone else would not have objections to. (with good grounds)

eg. OK Tedi Mine in PNG, hundreds of millions of tonnes a year of finely crushed mineral tailings dumped into the Ok Menga and Fly rivers, causing toxic siltation for hundreds of miles downstream. Thousands of hectares of siver flood plian filled with toxic sludge. Copper, zinc, arsenic levels in food plants, fish and people living in the area several times (several hundred times) above WHO standards. So that particular mine is a big polluter, but it would not be true to say all mines are or that the mining industry in general is.

Various specific chemical industries produce potentially lethal stuff. Responsible ones make sure little if any ends up in the environment. Paper industy used to be really bad, but even they have cleaned up their act.

You may have to be more specific about what you mean by pollution and industry.