Section 4: Off-site Disposal or Other Releases

Off-site Disposal or Other Releases, by State Receiving Transfer, 2013

View Larger Map, Note: The transfers shown do not include transfers to Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) and, thus, reflect only a portion of total TRI transfers.

TRI facilities report the quantities of chemicals that they transfer off-site for disposal or further waste management. This map displays the amount of TRI chemicals in waste received for disposal or release by each state in 2013. The Midwest - Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio - received the majority of TRI transfers for disposal in 2013, making up 52% of such TRI transfers.

Nationally, 83% of TRI transfers were of metals and metal compounds. Zinc, manganese, barium, copper, and lead and their compounds were the top five metals transferred during 2013. The same five states (Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio) received the majority of metal transfers for disposal. When metals and their compounds are excluded from the analysis, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, and Michigan received the most non-metal transfers for disposal. The top five non-metal TRI chemicals transferred during 2013 were nitrate compounds, ethylene glycol, methanol, nitric acid, and ammonia.

When looking at the geographic range of TRI transfers, 46 of the 50 U.S. states were their own largest sources of transfers for disposal; that is, facilities sent chemical waste for disposal to other sites within their state borders. In addition, a large number of transfers were from neighboring states (states with directly adjoining borders). Overall, 93% of TRI transfers for disposal came from either the receiving state or from neighboring states.

This page was published in January 2015 and uses the 2013 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2014.