Fabricated Metals Manufacturing Waste Management Trend
The following graph shows the annual quantities of TRI chemical waste managed through recycling, energy recovery, treatment, and disposal or other releases by facilities in the fabricated metal product manufacturing sector. For more details on quantities released, toggle to the “Releases only” graph.
Note: For comparability, trend graphs include only those chemicals that were reportable to TRI for all years presented.
From 2007 to 2019:
- Quantities of production-related waste managed by the fabricated metal product manufacturing sector decreased by 65 million pounds (-9%), while production volume (represented by the black line as reported by the Federal Reserve Board, Industrial Production Index Exit) decreased by 10%. In recent years, production has been increasing.
- Quantities of TRI chemical waste managed through recycling, combustion for energy recovery, treatment, and release all decreased.
From 2018 to 2019:
- Production-related waste managed at fabricated metal product manufacturing facilities decreased by 26 million pounds (-4%), while production volume increased by 1%. This decrease in production-related waste managed was driven by decreased recycling and treatment.
- During 2019, 8% of this sector’s waste was released into the environment, while the rest was managed through treatment, energy recovery, and recycling.
The following graph shows the annual quantities of TRI chemicals released by the fabricated metal product manufacturing industry.
Note: For comparability, trend graphs include only those chemicals that were reportable to TRI for all years presented.
From 2007 to 2019:
- TRI chemical releases by the fabricated metals manufacturing sector decreased by 8.3 million pounds (-14%).
- The decrease was driven by releases to air, which decreased by 12 million pounds from 2007 to 2019.
- Off-site disposal quantities increased, driven by off-site releases of nitrate compounds, which increased by 5 million pounds from 2007 to 2019.
- On-site releases to water decreased by 1.3 million pounds (-68%) and on-site land releases increased by 87,000 pounds (160%). On-site releases to water and land combined make up 3% of all releases from the fabricated metal product sector.
From 2018 to 2019:
- Releases increased by 0.4 million pounds (1%).
- For 2019, 14% of all facilities reporting to TRI were in the fabricated metals sector, but facilities in this sector accounted for less than 2% of all releases reported to TRI. On average, facilities in this sector reported fewer releases per facility than facilities in most other TRI-covered sectors.
Source Reduction in the Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing Sector:
For 2019, 188 facilities in this sector (6% of facilities) reported implementing 500 new source reduction activities. Several facilities in this sector reported initiating source reduction activities to reduce scrap generation. Note that minimizing the generation of scrap metal is a source reduction activity, while recycling scrap metal is a waste management practice. Examples of source reduction activities reported by the sector include:
- A machine shop reduced chromium compounds in waste by installing new racks which reduce damage to parts in production. [Click to view facility details in the TRI P2 Search Tool]
- A plumbing fixture manufacturer began using one copper part in two places instead of creating two separate parts, reducing copper residue and saving money. [Click to view facility details in the TRI P2 Search Tool]
Additional Resources
- TRI’s P2 program “Spotlights” feature pollution prevention activities by the fabricated metals and other sectors in reducing organic solvents and metal waste.
- TRI’s P2 Industry Profile Dashboard can help you learn more about releases, other waste management trends, and pollution prevention opportunities in this sector.
This page was published in January 2021 and uses the 2019 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2020.