Librarian's Environmental Toolkit

A guide to understanding and using TRI data, including important information about what the Toxics Release Inventory can and can't tell you. Available in English and Spanish.

This guide is intended for individuals and organizations working to reduce industrial pollution in communities. It will help you understand how to use Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data and other EPA resources to identify opportunities to prevent or reduce pollution from local industrial facilities. It also tells you what you can do to help implement those solutions. Each of the steps includes recommended approaches, tips, and additional resources.

Under the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA), TRI collects information to track industry progress in reducing waste generation and moving towards safer waste management alternatives. When providing this information, many facilities choose to describe the measures they have taken to prevent pollution and reduce the amount of toxic chemicals entering the environment. As a result, TRI serves as a tool for identifying effective environmental practices and highlighting pollution prevention successes.

A facility's coverage under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program is determined by its 6-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. NAICS is a framework by which economic units that have similar production processes are classified into the same industry by a numerical designation.

In general, chemicals covered by the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program are those that cause one or more of the following: Cancer or other chronic human health effects; Significant adverse acute human health effects; Significant adverse environmental effects.

Search this collection of case studies, articles, and other resources to find examples of how organizations and individuals have used Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data. U.S. facilities in certain industry sectors and all federal facilities must report their efforts in reducing the use of chemicals annually. They must also report quantities of chemical waste created as well as how much they managed through release into the environment, treatment, energy recovery and recycling. This information is compiled in the TRI and can be used by companies, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the public for advocacy, research or environmental improvement. The Catalog of Applied TRI Data Uses collects examples of these efforts and makes them searchable by keyword, type of waste management method or by project focus type, such as pollution prevention, risk management or industry performance.

These materials describe the pollution prevention efforts of certain Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) industry sectors and facilities, and highlight benefits of implementing P2 activities. EPA provides this information to showcase progress in preventing pollution and to encourage industry to move towards preferred waste management practices and safer alternatives.

U.S. facilities report detailed information to EPA on their management of toxic chemicals, including releases to the environment. The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) National Analysis interprets this information and examines trends in releases, waste management practices, and pollution prevention (P2) activities.

Learn about how a wide variety of individuals and organizations use Toxics Release Inventory data. Published in 2013.

TRI data are widely used by individuals and organizations for many purposes, some of which are explored on this webpage. Here you will find ideas for applying the TRI to your project or research question, examples of TRI data in action, and links to additional supporting resources.

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a starting point for communities to learn about toxic chemicals that industrial facilities are using and releasing into the environment, and whether those facilities are doing anything to prevent pollution.

The information presented here is part of a larger effort to inform tribes of the availability of TRI data and other resources that may help assess tribal environmental and health concerns.

This web map visually represents industrial air pollution information to citizens across the United States by mapping the relative risk from air pollution that industrial facilities pose to the human health of their communities and how those risks might change over time. Facility pollution information comes from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). TRI facilities are depicted as circles with colors that correlate to a risk screening value that is based on modeled output data from the EPA's Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model for assessing TRI data. Last updated in 2015.

EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model integrates data from multiple sources to help provide context to toxic chemical waste management activities from a relative risk-based perspective. RSEI model results can help policy makers, researchers, and communities establish priorities for further investigation and to look at changes in potential health-related impacts over time.

This search allows users to report on any data element, and is primarily geared toward the experienced user. The search consists of four main steps, as well as other features. Columns with a "code" value have a corresponding description column, a Comma Separated Value (CSV) option is available, and users can specify sort order and column display order.

TRI Search allows access to basic facility information, all forms submitted to EPA since 1987, aggregate chemical release data for all years reported, and relative risk information. The results display any facility that has reported from 1987 to present, even though the facility may or may not have submitted TRI data in the most recent reporting year. The last year of data displayed represents the last year TRI data was reported.

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program tracks the industrial management of toxic chemicals. TRI data are reported annually by industrial and federal facilities that meet reporting requirements. EPA makes these data available through multiple online tools, many of which add context to help make the reported data more understandable. Includes links to tab-delimited text files of basic and complete TRI data sets.

Use the TRI Pollution Prevention Search to learn how facilities have reduced releases of toxic chemicals to the environment and compare how different facilities have managed their toxic chemical waste. You can run two types of searches: Click " Show P2 Activities" to view reported P2 activities and associated reductions in toxic chemical quantities; Click " Display Comparison" to visually compare facilities or parent companies' waste management practices and trends.

EPA has resources to help industrial facilities report pollution prevention (P2) information to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program, access and analyze P2 data, and share P2 best practices.

A guide for facilities about what pollution prevention activities they're required to report under TRI.