TRI and Beyond
This section presents how the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) relates to other EPA environmental and chemical management programs and laws, and how the TRI serves as a model for pollutant release and transfer inventories internationally.
The TRI is a powerful resource that provides the public with information about how TRI chemical wastes are managed by facilities in the United States. Beyond the TRI, there are many other programs at EPA that also collect, through regulations established under laws, various types of information about TRI chemicals and other chemicals. The next figure is an overview of some of the laws that EPA implements, and the industrial activities or processes EPA regulates under these laws.
While many programs at EPA focus on one medium, i.e., land, air or water, TRI is unique in that it covers all media, including the release of chemicals to air, water, and land, and waste transfers. In addition, facilities that are subject to the TRI reporting requirements are required to submit TRI reports annually. As a result, TRI data are especially valuable, as they are timely and can be used with data from other datasets to provide a more complete picture of national trends in chemical use, chemical management, environmental release and other waste management practices, and environmental performance.
Note: The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) establishes requirements for emergency planning, preparedness, and reporting on hazardous and toxic chemicals involving air releases, water releases, land disposal, waste transfers, and the quantities of chemicals on site, the type and location of storage of those chemicals, and their use.
Offices throughout EPA use TRI data to support their respective missions to protect human health and the environment. These uses include technical analysis for regulation, informing program priorities and projects, providing information to internal and external stakeholders, and many other applications.
This page was published in January 2021 and uses the 2019 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2020.