"WASHINGTON - Environmental groups on Monday petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require companies to disclose the chemicals discharged from waste incinerators and plants that claim to recycle plastic waste into fuel.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Energy Justice Network filed the petition with the agency because the toxic chemical emissions from around 400 incinerators, gasification and pyrolysis, or "advanced recycling," facilities are not required to be reported to the Toxics Release Inventory.
The TRI was created as part of the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act and currently contains information on 770 chemicals from different industries to provide local communities with information about toxic chemical releases and waste management activities.
"Waste incinerators are typically among the largest industrial air polluters in their cities and counties, yet this info is invisible in this popular disclosure tool," said Mike Ewall, executive director of the Energy Justice Network, adding that minority and low-income communities are most at risk."
