The Impact of Pollution Prevention on Toxic Environmental Releases from U.S. Manufacturing Facilities

Abstract

Between 1991 and 2012, the facilities that reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Program conducted 370,000 source reduction projects. We use this data set to conduct the first quasi-experimental retrospective evaluation of how implementing a source reduction (pollution prevention) project affects the quantity of toxic chemicals released to the environment by an average industrial facility. We use a differences-in-differences methodology, which measures how implementing a source reduction project affects a facility's releases of targeted chemicals, relative to releases of (a) other untargeted chemicals from the same facility, or (b) the same chemical from other facilities in the same industry. We find that the average source reduction project causes a 9-16% decrease in releases of targeted chemicals in the year of implementation. Source reduction techniques vary in effectiveness: for example, raw material modification causes a large decrease in releases, while inventory control has no detectable effect. Our analysis suggests that in aggregate, the source reduction projects carried out in the U.S. since 1991 have prevented between 5 and 14 billion pounds of toxic releases.

The Utility of the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) in Tracking Implementation and Environmental Impact of Industrial Green Chemistry Practices in the United States

“…Similarly, product modifications, including W84 shows a −13% decrease. The other green chemistry codes fall under the process modifications category, which has shown moderate decreases of −5% [16]. One can infer from this study that to quantify the effectiveness of source reduction, different green chemistry practices would result in different environmental impacts.…”

“…These include improved economy and business, environment, and human health conditions. 1 The results have been updated from previously published results (Ranson et al [16]) to include the 2013 to 2015 TRI data. …”

Updated indicators of Swedish national human toxicity and ecotoxicity footprints using USEtox 2.01

“…However, mass-based indicators of chemical pollution are being used, see e.g., DeVito et al (2015) and Ranson et al (2015), primarily because such indicators are easy to compute, communicate, and based on data that are often available (at least for some countries and sectors). Therefore, it is interesting to compare the results based on mass-based indicators and indicators of chemical footprints based on USEtox.…”

“…Therefore, although limited in scope, pollutant release and transfer registers, such as the E-PRTR, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), are highly valuable to researchers and policy makers who wish to, e.g., estimate an aggregated national chemical footprint (for other applications, see e.g., DeVito et al, 2015, andRanson et al, 2015). In order to support more comprehensive assessments, similar registers should be developed for other sectors (e.g., agriculture).…”

Transitioning to Safer Chemicals in Academic Research Laboratories: Lessons Learned at the University of Washington

“…5 Process modifications such as optimizing reaction conditions, using different catalysts, and reducing organic solvents have also been shown to be effective toxic waste source reduction strategies. 44 Decision-making for future case studies may be supplemented by authoritative lists of chemicals of concern, such as the International Chemical Secretariat's SIN List, 45 or a widely used resource that ranks chemicals, such as the GSK solvent selection guide. 4 Positive reinforcement through communication by the project team and departmental leadership was essential to the success of the project.…”