TRI National Analysis
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EPA Regional Profiles

This section of the National Analysis looks at releases and other production-related waste managementThe sum of all non-accidental chemical waste generated at a facility. It is the sum of on-site environmental releases (minus quantities from non-routine, one-time events), on-site waste management (recycling, treatment, and combustion for energy recovery), and off-site transfers for disposal, treatment, recycling or energy recovery. activities of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals at the EPA regional level during 2020. EPA has 10 regional offices, each of which is responsible for multiple states and in some cases, territories and tribes.

Map of the US, split into EPA regions

Region 1: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont Region 2: New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands Region 3: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia Region 4: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee Region 5: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin Region 6: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas Region 7: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska Region 8: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakaota, Utah, Wyoming Region 9: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands Region 10: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington

EPA regions vary in size, population, and the types of facilities located in each. This results in significant differences between national and regional trends in TRI chemical waste management. For example, certain industrial activities such as metal mining are geographically concentrated and generate large quantities of TRI chemical waste. Release trends in regions with many metal mines often differ greatly from national release trends.

The charts below show how much each EPA region contributed to production-related waste managed and releases.

 
 

The relative amounts of production-related waste managed compared to releases in each region is largely explained by the types of industry located in each region. For example:

  • Quantities of production-related waste managed in Regions 3, 4 and 5 were mostly from the chemical manufacturing sector. Each of these regions include one chemical manufacturing facility that reported large quantities of chemicals recycled on site. For example, in Region 3, one facility reported recycling 3.6 billion pounds of cumene. In Region 4, one facility reported recycling almost 2 billion pounds of dichloromethane (methylene chloride).
  • Region 6 had the largest quantity of production-related waste managed, driven by chemical manufacturing facilities treating chemicals on site, such as ethylene, propylene, and hydrochloric acid.
  • In Regions 8, 9 and 10, metal mines accounted for more releases than any other sector. Metal mines usually report large quantities of on-site land disposals, primarily of TRI chemicals in metal-bearing rock (called ore) and waste rock. This sector also ranks lower than almost all others for quantities of waste managed through treatment, energy recovery, and recycling, resulting in lower quantities of waste managed in regions with more metal mines.
TRI Data Considerations

As with any dataset, there are several factors to consider when using the TRI data. Key factors associated with data used in the National Analysis are summarized in the Introduction. For more information see Factors to Consider When Using Toxics Release Inventory Data.

This page was published in March 2022 and uses the 2020 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2021.

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Last updated on March 2, 2022