Most of the toxic chemical waste managed at industrial facilities in 2013 in the US was not released into the environment, according to the EPA’s annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report.
The report shows that about 22 billion pounds — or 84 percent— of the 26 billion pounds of toxic chemical waste were instead managed through the use of preferred practices such as recycling, similar to previous years’ TRIs.
Of the 4 billion pounds that were disposed of or otherwise released to the environment, 66 percent went to land, 19 percent to air, 5 percent to water and 10 percent was transferred to other facilities.