Trends in Waste Management
Waste streams generated during normal industrial operations may be recycled, combusted for energy recovery, treated, or released. For example, facilities report the recovery of solvents as a recycling method, or the destruction of a chemical waste through incineration as treatment. This figure shows the 10-year trend in on-site and off-site waste managed.
From 2013 to 2022:
- Waste managed increased by 2.0 billion pounds (7%).
- Recycling increased by 3.5 billion pounds (32%), largely driven by several chemical manufacturing facilities that each reported recycling more than one billion pounds annually in recent years.
- Disposal or other releases decreased by 703 million pounds (-18%).
- Treatment decreased by 1.0 billion pounds (-12%).
- Energy recovery increased by 191 million pounds (7%).
- The number of facilities that report to TRI has declined by 2% since 2013. Reasons for this decrease include facility closures, outsourcing of operations to other countries, and facilities reducing their manufacture, processing, or other use of TRI-listed chemicals to below the reporting thresholds.
Facilities report both on- and off-site waste management. The following chart shows the relative quantities of on-site and off-site waste management methods for 2022.
Note: Percentages do not sum to 100% due to rounding.
For 2022, 87% of waste was managed on site.
- Most waste managed off site is recycled. Most of this recycling is reported by the primary and fabricated metals sectors. Facilities in these sectors often send scrap metal containing TRI chemicals such as zinc and copper off site for recycling.
- The 2022 distribution of waste managed on site and off site is similar to previous years.
This page was published in March 2024 and uses the 2022 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2023.