Production-Related Waste Managed by Industry-2015_TRI chart

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available database containing information on

toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

releases and other

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

activities in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Summary of requirements

The database is available from the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

(EPA) and contains information reported annually by some industry groups as well as

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

facilities. Each year, companies across a wide range of industries (including chemical manufacturing,

metal mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic vi ...

, coal- or oil-burning electric utilities, and other industries) that manufacture, process, or otherwise use more than a certain amount of a listed chemical must report it to the TRI. For most listed chemicals, facilities must report if they manufacture 25,000 pounds or process or otherwise use 10,000 pounds of the chemical, but some chemicals have lower reporting thresholds.

Origins

The inventory was first proposed in a 1985 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' op-ed piece written by David Sarokin and Warren Muir, researchers for an environmental group, Inform, Inc.

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

established TRI under Section 313 of the

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 is a United States federal law passed by the 99th United States Congress located at Title 42, Chapter 116 of the U.S. Code, concerned with emergency response preparedness. On October ...

of 1986 (EPCRA), and later expanded it in the

Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA) is a United States federal law that created a national policy to promote the prevention of pollution or reduction at pollution sources wherever possible. The law also expanded the Toxics Release Inventor ...

(PPA). The law was developed out of concern about Union Carbide's releases of toxic gases in the 1984

Bhopal disaster The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a chemical accident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Considered the world's wo ...

(India) and a smaller 1985 release at its plant in

Institute, West Virginia Institute is an unincorporated community on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. Interstate 64 and West Virginia Route 25 pass by the community, which has grown to intermingle with nearby Dunbar. As of 2018, the commu ...

Reporting requirements

Facilities are required to report to the TRI if they meet all of the following requirements: * The facility is included in a TRI-covered

North American Industry Classification System The North American Industry Classification System or NAICS () is a classification of business establishments by type of economic activity (process of production). It is used by government and business in Canada, Mexico, and the United States of A ...

(NAICS) code, or is a federal facility * The facility has 10 or more full-time employee equivalents (i.e., a total of 20,000 hours or greater) and * The facility manufactures (defined to include importing), processes or otherwise uses any EPCRA Section 313 chemical in quantities greater than the established threshold during a calendar year. If certain criteria are met, the facility may be allowed to complete a "Form A" certification statement instead of the more detailed "Form R." Form A may only be used for chemicals that are not considered chemicals of special concern, for which amounts manufactured, processed, or otherwise used at the facility do not exceed 1 million pounds, and which do not exceed 500 pounds of annual reportable amount (i.e., total quantity released/disposed of, treated, recycled, and combusted for energy recovery) in the calendar year. Facilities must report quantities of listed chemicals released to the air through stacks or

fugitive emission Fugitive emissions are leaks and other irregular releases of gases or vapors from a pressurized containment – such as appliances, storage tanks, pipelines, wells, or other pieces of equipment – mostly from industrial activities. In addition ...

s; quantities directly discharged to water on-site or to a

publicly owned treatment works A publicly owned treatment works (POTW) is a term used in the United States for a sewage treatment plant owned, and usually operated, by a government agency. In the U.S., POTWs are typically owned by local government agencies, and are usually desig ...

; released or disposed of to land, such as in a

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

injection well An injection well is a device that places fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer. The fluid may be water, wastewater, brine (salt water), or water mixed with indus ...

; and quantities of waste transferred off-site for disposal or release. The PPA added requirements for facilities to report information on quantities of production-related waste managed on- and off-site through recycling, combustion for energy recovery, treatment, and disposal of other releases, and to report information on quantities of waste managed due to one-time or non-production-related events. Facilities also report information on any

source reduction Source reduction is activities designed to reduce the volume, mass, or toxicity of products throughout the life cycle. It includes the design and manufacture, use, and disposal of products with minimum toxic content, minimum volume of material, and ...

activities undertaken to prevent pollution.

Accessing TRI data

TRI National Analysis

Every year, EPA publishes the ''TRI National Analysis,'' which interprets the reported TRI data and examines trends in releases, waste management practices, and

pollution prevention Content related to Pollution prevention may be found at, for example: * Water pollution * Air pollution * Plastic pollution Related concepts and processes * Circular economy * Remanufacturing * Source reduction * Sustainable packaging * Toxics ...

(P2) activities. The National Analysis includes an analysis of trends in releases and waste management, as well as analyses of important industry sectors, chemicals of special concern, and a "Where You Live" tool that maps the data.

Data access

The TRI data can be accessed in multiple ways through EPA's website. * The TRI program home page includes a tool for searching recent years of data. * EPA also provides access to the raw data through its "Envirofacts" website. * Fact sheets and reports for all years are available through EPA's "TRI Explorer" website.

References

External links

EPA - Find, Understand and Use TRI
{{Social accountability Government databases in the United States Hazardous waste Pollutant release inventories and registers Pollution in the United States United States Environmental Protection Agency United States federal environmental legislation