What are the communities near waste import facilities?

The communities surrounding hazardous waste facilities vary in their racial and economic make-up, two factors common in

Environmental Justice"The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."-EPA

studies. The map at the left shows the correlation between the number of hazardous waste shipments and the percent of people in poverty by census tract, with the ability to toggle to view the correlation of shipments to percent of non-white residents and median income, by census tract. You can see on the map that there is an uneven distribution of hazardous waste importing facilities in the United States and an uneven amount of shipments going to those facilities. Additionally, waste processing sites are located in tracts with a variety of socio-economic compositions. In some cases, there were many shipments to sites located in areas with a high percent of people below the poverty line, a high percent of non-white residents, and at very low median household income areas. Socio-economic data is from the U.S. Census's 2012 American Household Survey.