St. Louis firm trying to win converts to recycling mercury thermostats

ST. LOUIS -- When J.B. Richman tells other contractors he recycles thermostats containing mercury switches, they often respond with indifference or jokes.

"When I tell them what I do, they look at me like I'm a silly old man," said Richman, who runs J.B. Richman HVACR in St. Louis.

But Richman and others are trying to win converts to the practice, encouraging contractors to work with Thermostat Recycling Corp., which offers a nationwide program that provides free recycling of mercury thermostats.

While most mercury in the environment comes from power plants, thermostats are one of the largest sources of the toxic metal in consumer products, said Marie Steinwachs, director of the University of Missouri Extension Office of Waste Management in Nixa. Each thermostat can contain between 3 to 6 grams of mercury.

Thermostats "are not an insignificant source if you are talking about several hundred pounds of mercury in millions of thermostats," she said. "We want to go after the more personal, close-to-home sources. Missouri is kind of behind the game in finding ways to round those up."

When mercury is improperly disposed of, it can leach into groundwater and waterways and eventually be consumed by humans who eat fish. Mercury causes nerve damage and developmental disorders, and even low levels can harm children and fetuses.

Thermostat Recycling recovered 80,000 thermostats containing more than 729 pounds of mercury in 2004. Thermostat collections increased 23 percent over 2003 and mercury recovery was up 17 percent.

The program has now recovered nearly 3,000 pounds of mercury from 336,000 used thermostats since it began in 1998.

The program, operated by thermostat manufacturers Honeywell International Inc., General Electric Co. and Emerson Electric Co., provides bins and supplies to wholesalers who agree to collect the thermostats and ship them to recycling outlets, said Ric Erdheim, its executive director.

"We're getting more traction every year," Erdheim said. "We're not at the tipping point yet, but we are approaching the time where it will become routine in the industry to recycle the thermostats."

Last month, Steinwachs used a grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to send letters about the program to heating and cooling companies throughout the state.

The response was gratifying, she said. Steinwachs talked to between 30 and 40 businesses a day right after the letters went out, although the number has dropped recently, she said Tuesday.

"I was surprised by the extent to which they were interested," Steinwachs said. "A lot of them said 'Thank you, we've been waiting for something like this for a long time."'

Richman said he encourages homeowners to install electronic thermostats and collects the mercury thermostat to recycle. He said that besides not containing mercury, the electronic thermostats are more energy efficient.

"It all fits together in the area of taking care of what we have, conserving our natural resources," Richman said. "This little mercury switch is one part of that picture."

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On the Net:

Thermostat Recycling Corp.: http://www.nema.org/trc

University of Missouri Extension: http://extension.missouri.edu