Pollution Prevention
Pollution prevention, also known as “P2” or “source reduction,” is any practice that reduces or eliminates pollution at its source prior to waste management. By generating less waste, the likelihood of impacts to human health and the environment is reduced. Additionally, it is often less expensive for facilities to prevent pollution from being created than to pay for control, treatment, or disposal of wastes.
Under the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA), facilities that report to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program are required to include information on newly implemented P2 activities. Many facilities also choose to include details that further describe their P2 actions. As a result, TRI serves as a robust tool for identifying effective P2 practices and highlighting pollution prevention successes.
- Facilities implemented 3,690 new source reduction activities for almost 200 different chemicals
- An EPA analysis estimated that TRI source reduction activities eliminated 23 billion pounds of chemical releases since 1991.
As with any dataset, there are many factors to consider when using TRI data. Find a summary of key factors associated with the data used in the National Analysis in the Introduction. For more information see Factors to Consider When Using Toxics Release Inventory Data.
This page was published in August 2025 and uses the 2023 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2024.