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Who Has to File a TRI Report?
Facilities in different industry sectors, facilities in Indian country, and federal facilities must annually report how much of each toxic chemical they managed through recycling, energy recovery, treatment, and environmental releases.
Either a facility’s owner or operator may file the TRI report, but both will be held responsible if a report is not filed. Facilities that must file TRI reports if they meet all of the following criteria:
- Have 10 or more full-time employee equivalents (i.e., 20,000 hours). One full-time employee means 2,000 hours per year of full-time equivalent employment. A facility would calculate the 10-employee threshold by totaling the hours worked during the calendar year by all full- and part-time employees, including contract employees, and dividing that total by 2,000 hours (does not include contract drivers or janitorial contractors).
- The facility is in a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) major group or industry code listed in 40 CFR 372.23(b) and 40 CFR 372.23(c).
Join us for the 2015 Toxic Release Inventory Report webinar on May 19 to learn the recent changes required by businesses when filing their TRI. Learn more.
What Does the P2 Search Tool Do?
Under the federal Pollution Prevention Act, the EPA gathers pollution prevention information from facilities. The P2 Search Tool allows comparisons from facility to facility.
Until recently, the search tool was only organized according to the facility, but the EPA has updated the tool to include the “highest-level U.S. parent” of each facility. The P2 Search Tool allows businesses to see what competitors are doing for pollution prevention success and effective practices.
How Does the P2 Search Tool Work?
When providing TRI reporting information to the EPA, many facilities choose to describe the actions and procedures they take to reduce toxic pollutants from releasing into the environment. This search tool collects this information in one database.
You can use the P2 Search Tool to find P2 data for a specific facility; to get information by sector, chemical, or parent company; and to compare P2 progress and reports between businesses.
To find P2 examples by a specific chemical and industry:
- Go to TRI P2 Search.
- Select your “Search Criteria.”
- Click “Show P2 info for facilities” or “Show P2 info for parent companies.”
- After you fill out the criteria, you can choose “Show P2 Activities” or “Display Comparison Chart.”
Your 2015 Toxic Release Inventory Report: How to Meet Requirements by the July 1 Compliance Deadline
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Let’s Go for a Ride
We decided to give the P2 Search Tool a ride. Here’s what happened when we tried the P2 Search Tool out for “Show P2 info for facilities.”
Here’s what we entered in the criteria:
- For the industry, we chose “Hazardous Waste/Solvent Recovery.”
- For the chemical, we chose “Hazardous Air Pollutants.”
- For reporting year, we chose 2013.
- For states, we chose “All States.”
Note: You can choose all industry sectors; all chemicals, chemical categories, or individual chemicals; one or more reporting years back to 1991; and all or individual states.
Here’s a synopsis of the results we got:
We got 139 results spread over 13 facilities; a variety of hazardous air pollutants (each HAP in one facility was listed as a single entry result); the prior year release of the HAP at the facility, the current year release, and the percentage of change; and a brief description of the P2 activity. You can also click the facility to get the P2 details for that facility/HAP.
P2 and TRI Analysis
EPA’s most recent TRI analysis (for reporting year 2013) shows that a total of 3,362 facilities (16% of all TRI facilities) reported initiating 10,623 source reduction activities. Of the source reduction activities implemented, good operating practices is reported the most at 37%. Process modifications came in second at 22%.
Note: Facilities report their source reduction activities by selecting from activities that fall into one of eight categories:
- Good operating practices
- Process modifications
- Spill and leak prevention
- Raw material modifications
- Inventory control
- Product modifications
- Cleaning and degreasing
- Surface preparation and refinishing