More on Waste Prevention and Reduction

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Think about what’s in the average garbage can—junk mail, grass clippings, broccoli stems, tin cans, milk cartons?  Every day, the average American creates 4.6 pounds of solid waste (U.S. EPA). A big part of saving the environment is reducing the amount of waste we send to landfills, and reducing the toxicity of the garbage. As environmental awareness has grown, the oil and natural gas industry—like many American households—has made great progress in reducing waste.

Through innovative approaches and new technologies, the industry generates much less waste than before: total waste generated by exploration and production operations has declined from 21.4 million barrels in 1985 to 18.1 million barrels in 1995, representing a nine percent decrease in produced water and a 53 percent decrease in drilling waste.  In the Refining sector, residual wastes that once ended up in landfills are now processed and reused as feedstock.  In 1985, refineries recycled about 26 percent of residuals; by 1997 this reuse had increased to 62 percent, which cuts costs, conserves energy, increases efficiency, and helps the environment. 

Another environmental yardstick for waste is the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)  This API report addresses the estimated amount of toxic chemicals released to the environment or disposed on-site and/or transferred off-site in wastes by petroleum facilities, including but not limited to, petroleum refineries and bulk plants and terminals, as reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by industry from 1988 to 2005.  It is based on the EPA's annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which was created by the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.  The TRI Program was later expanded by the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990.