Toxic's Release Inventory | Dioxin Facts | Energy Facts

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) annually compiles the Toxic's Release Inventory (TRI). Its goal is to educate citizens about how companies and local governments are managing chemical hazards. The pulp and paper industry believes that the TRI is an important tool for everyone.

What is the TRI?

The TRI program is a part of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986. Over the years, the TRI has grown to include information on approximately 650 compounds released by these industries: forest products, chemicals, metal mining, coal mining, electric utilities, commercial hazardous waste treatment facilities and oil processing.

What's different in the latest TRI?

The EPA added dioxins to the TRI for the reporting year 2000. All companies, including those in the pulp and paper industry, were required for the first time to give the EPA information on the release of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. That information is available in the TRI published in spring 2002.

Since this will be the first time pulp and paper industry emissions have been included in the TRI, comparisons with former reports will not reflect the significant reductions mills have made in dioxin emissions over the past 15 years. (For example, the industry has spent more than $1 billion since 1987 to improve processes, resulting in a 95% reduction in dioxin emissions, according to the EPA.)