Manufacturing Waste Management Trend
The following graph shows the 10-year trend in TRI chemical waste managed through recycling, energy recovery, treatment, and disposal or other releases by the manufacturing sectors. For more details on quantities released, toggle to the “Releases only” graph.
From 2013 to 2022:
An industry's value added is the market value it adds in production; it is the difference between the price at which it sells its products and the cost of its inputs. Value added for all U.S. industries combined is equal to the nation's gross domestic product.
- Quantities of waste managed by the manufacturing sectors generally increased from 2013 to 2018. Since then, these quantities have decreased.
- Releases and treatment of chemical waste decreased, while recycling and combustion for energy recovery increased. Recycling and combustion for energy recovery are preferred to disposal and treatment, because recycling and energy recovery use waste materials for a useful purpose instead of destroying or disposing of them.
- It is important to consider how the economy influences waste generation at facilities. This figure includes the trend in the manufacturing sectors’ value added (represented by the black line, as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Value Added by Industry).
- Since 2013, value added by the manufacturing sectors and waste managed by these sectors both increased by 14%. The overall increase in waste management was caused by large increases in recycling that started in 2014, driven by several facilities that each reported recycling one billion pounds or more annually.
- Waste managed and value added both increased, which suggests that manufacturing facilities managed about the same quantity of waste per unit of product in 2022 compared to 2013.
From 2021 to 2022:
- Waste managed decreased by 694 million pounds (-3%), while value added remained about the same, which may suggest that manufacturers managed less waste per unit of product made in 2022 than in 2021.
- In 2022, only 5% of the manufacturing sectors’ waste generated was released into the environment, while the rest was managed through treatment, energy recovery, and recycling.
The following graph shows the 10-year trend in quantities of TRI chemicals released by facilities in manufacturing sectors.
From 2013 to 2022:
- TRI chemical releases from manufacturing sectors decreased by 9%, primarily due to reduced air releases (69 million pounds) and on-site land disposal (47 million pounds).
- Off-site disposal or other releases remained about the same.
From 2021 to 2022:
- Releases decreased by 41 million pounds (-3%), driven by the chemical manufacturing sector.
Pollution Prevention in the Manufacturing Sectors
In 2022, 1,674 manufacturing facilities initiated over 3,400 pollution prevention activities to reduce TRI chemical use and waste creation. The most commonly reported type of pollution prevention activity was Process and Equipment Modifications. For example:
- A fabric coating mill implemented a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in 2022 which improved onsite inventory management and helped reduce the amount of toluene managed as waste. [Click to view facility details in the TRI P2 Search Tool]
You can learn more about pollution prevention opportunities in this sector by using the TRI P2 Search Tool. Facilities interested in exploring pollution prevention opportunities at their site can contact their Regional P2 Coordinator to arrange a free on-site P2 assessment.
This page was published in March 2024 and uses the 2022 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2023.
