TRI Program Impacts on Reducing Toxic Chemical Releases

Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting has limitations; however, the program has been successful in reducing releases of chemicals included in the program. In one survey, users of the TRI program were surveyed to determine the impacts of the program on environmental performance. The TRI data are published in a format that allows the public to view the top emitters by facility, industry type, and location. Facilities can monitor their own position in the rankings of top emitters to benchmark environmental performance based on the total mass of toxic chemicals released. In performing pollution prevention opportunity assessments at a series of military installations, one of the goals was to reduce the use of TRI chemicals below the reporting threshold. TRI success stories include the attendees of the 1997 Environmental Protection Act Region III TRI workshop provided reasons for undertaking waste reduction activities. The most frequent reason given (98 percent of respondents) was cost reduction.