Application of the US EPA's risk-screening indicators model and toxic release inventory database to study pollution prevention trends in paper manufacturing industry.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) using information submitted by different industries in the United States. This research examines the contaminants released by paper manufacturing industry in the United States and Ohio over time and what paper manufacturers are doing to diminish the quantities of chemical wastes generated, released to the environment, or managed by other means. It is understood that there is a reduction in the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) scores from 2002 to 2014 in all the states, which can be related to the adaptation of recycling or reusing of the chemicals in various other manufacturing processes. The other significant observation inferred from the analysis is that the facilities in the states such as Wisconsin, Louisiana, South Carolina, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania based on the economic feasibility or recycling prospects, they are generating higher quantities of the selected chemical resulting in the higher RSEI scores respectively for the above-mentioned states. This article demonstrates the application of the risk-screening indicators model to a large database to analyze pollution data. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 808-814, 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]