The following graph shows the annual quantities of 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.

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 manufacturing sectors decreased through 2009, following the trend of reduced production resulting from the economic recession. Since 2009, quantities of waste managed have increased.
  • Quantities of waste released and treated decreased, while quantities combusted for energy recovery and recycled increased.
• It is important to consider the influence the economy has on production and production-related waste generation. 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 Exit). Since 2007, value added by the manufacturing sectors increased by 27%.
  • Production-related waste managed by the manufacturing sectors increased by 30% since 2007, driven by increased recycling. The large increase in recycled chemical waste starting in 2014 was primarily due to an increase in the quantity of cumene recycled by one facility and dichloromethane (methylene chloride) recycled by two other facilities.

From 2018 to 2019:

• Production-related waste managed decreased by 996 million pounds (-4%), while value added increased slightly. Annual changes in production-related waste quantities are driven by a few facilities.
• In 2019, 5% of the manufacturing sectors’ production-related waste generated 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 manufacturing sectors.

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 manufacturing sectors decreased by 21%. This is primarily due to a reduction in air emissions and off-site disposal or other releases.
• Releases to water also declined, while on-site land disposal increased by 7%.

From 2018 to 2019:

• Releases decreased by 36 million pounds (-2%). This is largely due to a decrease in on-site land disposal reported by facilities in the chemical manufacturing sector.

Source Reduction in the Manufacturing Sectors:

In 2019, 7% of manufacturing facilities initiated nearly 3,000 source reduction activities to reduce TRI chemical use and waste generation. The most commonly reported types of source reduction activitites were good operating practices and process modifications. For example:

• A circuit board manufacturing facility established new criteria for bath changes to extend bath life, reducing the amount of certain glycol ethers waste generated. [Click to view facility details in the TRI P2 Search Tool]
• A rubber products manufacturer modified loss-in-weight feeders with pipe-in-pipe and flexible rubber boot systems to keep transferred material contained, reducing their releases of zinc compounds. [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.