The following graph shows the annual quantities of toxic chemicals managed by the chemical manufacturing industry.

From 2005 to 2015:

• Production-related waste managed by the chemical manufacturing sector increased by 16%, while production (represented by the black line as reported by the Federal Reserve Board, Industrial Production Index for Major Industry Groups) decreased by 10%.
• Quantities of waste released, treated, or used in energy recovery decreased, while the quantity of waste recycled increased by 62%.
• The large increases in recycled waste in 2014 and 2015 are due to the quantity of recycled cumene reported by one facility. Excluding this amount, the total quantities of waste recycled decreased by 16% and production-related waste managed decreased by 14%.

From 2014 to 2015:

• Production-related waste managed increased by 35.4 million pounds (0.3%).
• In 2015, 4% of the sector’s waste was released into the environment, while the rest was managed through treatment, energy recovery, and recycling.

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This page was published in January 2017 and uses the 2015 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2016.

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