Fact Sheet: Chemical Industry Halves Toxic Releases

Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA)

Since 1987 the US chemical industry reduced by 49 percent releases of toxic chemicals to the environment, according to reports for the Environmental Protection Agency. The industry reduced waste disposal in EPA-permitted deep-wells by 46 percent and off-site transfers for treatment and disposal by 56 percent. This was the seventh straight year that the industry reduced releases and transfers of toxic chemicals. At the same time, production increased by 18 percent.

Progress in 1993, the most recent reporting year, was particularly noteworthy. A survey by the Chemical Manufacturers Association showed reductions that year by its member companies of 16 percent for releases, 14 percent for underground injection and 21 percent for transfers, excluding transfers for recycling and energy recovery. If these are included, the reduction is greater -- 31 percent. CMA member companies represent more than 90 percent of US productive capacity for basic chemicals.

The Toxics Release Inventory is an important national measure of pollution prevention. Over the years, EPA has added and subtracted chemicals and in 1990 made a major change -- requiring industry to report only the ammonia portion of ammonium sulfate. In 1991, EPA began to tabulate wastes generated in manufacturing processes, including those sent offsite, for recycling and energy recovery.

Graph: Toxics Release Inventory (million lbs) [provided in source document]

To provide meaningful year-to-year comparisons, the Chemical Manufacturers Association tracks 320 core chemicals that have been on the Toxics Release Inventory from the beginning. From 1987 through 1992, CMA analyzed reports from all plants operated by its member companies and in 1993 surveyed the 55 member companies that account for 90 percent of the releases and transfers reported by CMA member companies. These Fact Sheets use data from 1987, the first year the inventory was reported, as the base year.

While pollution prevention is a priority for all CMA member companies, the progress of several large companies significantly reduced industry TRI totals in 1993. The companies included DuPont, Eastman Chemical and Occidental Chemical. OxyChem operates 35 plants in the US that make basic chemicals, petrochemicals, and polymers and plastics. The company has ambitious pollution prevention goals -- to reduce hazardous air emissions by 10 percent per year, and water discharges and solid waste by 5 percent per year -- progress is well underway. In 1993, releases reported for the Toxics Release Inventory were down 27 percent from the previous year.

OxyChem uses source reduction, recycling and treatment -- the pollution prevention hierarchy -- to cut releases to the air, water and land. Specific cases in point:

In 1993, OxyChem's Chicago silicate plant substituted carbon dioxide for hydrogen chloride in wastewater treatment and reduced TRI releases and transfers by 90 percent.
The company modified chlorine recovery processes at plants in Mobile and Muscle Shoals, AL, eliminating 270,000 pounds of carbon tetrachloride released each year. Carbon tetrachloride is a "33/50" chemical, one of 17 priority chemicals that EPA asked industry to reduce voluntarily by 1995. OxyChem achieved the 50 percent reduction goal two years before the deadline.
At the Matagorda, TX, plant, a catalyst change resulted in a one-third reduction in transfers of toluene, another "33/50" chemical.
Toluene was also a waste product in the manufacture of a paint additive at OxyChem's Ashtabula, OH, plant. The company added a distillation process to purify the toluene for recycling. This reduced waste generation by 70 percent.
At Niagara Fall, NY, where OxyChem produces a herbicide intermediate, process modification replaced end-of-the-pipe controls. As a result, 18 million pounds of acid was recovered, effluent flow was reduced by 90 percent, two million pounds of solid waste to were eliminated and the consumption of hydrogen fluoride, a raw material, was reduced due to increased efficiency.
A new filtration system at OxyChem's Chocolate Bayou plant in Houston, TX, reduced the hazardous waste generated in cleaning heat exchangers by 65 percent. The plant is one of 10 OxyChem facilities that are participating in the Clean Texas 2000 Program to reduce hazardous waste by 50 percent.

Most chemical companies have similar programs with similar results. A driving force is Responsible Care, the industrywide initiative introduced in 1988 by CMA to improve the industry's safety health and environmental performance and to respond to public concerns about chemicals. The initiative is implemented through codes of management practice -- community awareness and emergency response, employee health and safety, process safety, product stewardship, distribution and pollution prevention.

Toxics Release Inventory (million lbs)

1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993* % Change

Releases 627 573 527 449 417 378 319 -49%

Transfers** 443 403 350 320 302 246 195 -56%

Underground Injection 675 665 544 426 421 425 365 -46%

* Projection based on a survey of 55 companies that account for 90% of the releases and transfers reported by CMA member companies.
** Excluding transfers for recycling and energy recovery.

	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993*	% Change
Releases	627	573	527	449	417	378	319	-49%
Transfers**	443	403	350	320	302	246	195	-56%
Underground Injection	675	665	544	426	421	425	365	-46%
* Projection based on a survey of 55 companies that account for 90% of the releases and transfers reported by CMA member companies. ** Excluding transfers for recycling and energy recovery.

Return to top of document.

Last Updated: March 5, 1996