DEQ Awards $10,000 Grant to Marion County For Thermostat Collection Program

The collection program will begin this fall.

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has awarded a $10,000 household hazardous waste grant to Marion County, which will work with the Oregon Environmental Council to collect mercury-containing thermostats locally. Marion County and Portland General Electric are providing $10,000 and $5,000 in matching monies, respectively. Through the pilot project, the county will contract with OEC to encourage homeowners throughout the county to replace their mercury-containing thermostats with more efficient digital thermostats, and to return their used mercury thermostats to Lowe`s home improvement stores in Marion County. Officials expect to recover at least 250 thermostats countywide, thus reducing the amount of mercury-containing waste targeted for incineration at the Covanta Waste-to-Energy facility in Brooks. Each thermostat contains about four grams of mercury, or almost a teaspoon. Because there are so many mercury thermostats in use, they are one of the largest sources of disposed mercury in Oregon. The used thermostats will be sent to the Thermostat Recycling Corporation, a not-for-profit entity established by thermostat manufacturers Honeywell, General Electric and White Rodgers. The corporation is a voluntary, industry-sponsored program that provides a mechanism for the proper disposal of mercury switch thermostats, regardless of brand. The project builds on efforts by OEC, PGE and DEQ to encourage thermostat recycling at the wholesale level by expanding outreach efforts directly to homeowners. A recycling effort targeting heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors began in January and has already reclaimed more than 30 pounds of mercury. Nationally, no retail-based thermostat recovery projects currently exist that directly target homeowners. OEC and Marion County`s Public Works-Environmental Services department will work with Lowe`s managers as well as education and outreach staff from PGE to create a homeowners awareness campaign. The outreach effort may include mailings to PGE customers, brochures distributed at Lowe`s stores in Marion County and/or existing outreach programs offered through Marion County`s Public Works-Environmental Services department.