The US saw an 8% increase in toxic chemicals industries released into the environment or sent for hazardous waste disposal in 2021 over the previous year, the Environmental Protection Agency reported Thursday.
The data doesn’t cover all toxic chemical releases but rather the nearly 800 chemicals tracked by more than 21,000 facilities required to report the pollution each year to the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory. The latest TRI report shows a long-term trend of declining chemical releases, which are down 10% from a decade ago.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the resumption of US economic activity have played a role in ...