Could you please send out to the CRRA listserves? This is a Sierra
Club priority Bill.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Bill
Magavern
Monday,
March 3, 2008
916-557-1100, x102
Heidi
Sanborn
(916) 402-3911
New
Bill Would Give Consumers
Ways to
Recycle Old Mercury Thermostats
Most
Californians have no idea how to recycle old mercury-containing thermostats,
even though state law bans mercury waste from being thrown in the trash. New
legislation introduced by Assemblymember Ira Ruskin with the support of Sierra
Club California and the California Product Stewardship Council would give
consumers free and convenient options for recycling their waste thermostats in
an environmentally-responsible manner.
The Mercury Thermostat Collection Act of 2008, Assembly Bill 2347, would allow Californians
to return their waste thermostats to any location that sells new thermostats. Companies that make
new thermostats for sale in the state would pick up most of the costs for the recycling program.
Bill
Magavern,
Director of Sierra Club California,
hailed the legislation: “Most people want to do the right thing when it’s time
to get rid of hazardous household products. Assemblymember Ruskin’s bill would
finally provide free and convenient options for recycling mercury
thermostats.”
“Cash-strapped
local governments have had to pay for hazardous product waste management for too
long,” added Heidi
Sanborn,
Director of the California Product Stewardship Council. “AB 2347 establishes a
model policy for extended producer responsibility that requires the companies
that profit from products to pay for end-of-life disposition. These programs are commonplace in
Europe,
Canada,
Japan and
other industrialized countries”
“There
is a serious threat to public health from mercury, and it is time for the
companies who have profited from selling these products to take responsibility
for their disposal. Mercury pollution has already contaminated the waters
of the San
Francisco
Bay and
Bay Area watersheds, and high levels of mercury make many of the fish that swim
in these polluted waters unsafe for human consumption. My bill will
greatly reduce the amount of mercury from thermostats that is allowed to pollute
our environment,” Assemblymember Ruskin said.
Mercury
thermostats should be kept out of our air and water because on average they
contain over 3,000 milligrams of the toxin (for purposes of comparison, fluorescent
light bulbs contain around 5 milligrams).
It is estimated that only 5 percent of California’s
mercury thermostats are properly managed.
The San
Francisco
Bay and
delta, Tomales
Bay, and
eight other county water bodies currently have fish consumption advisories due
to mercury contamination. Sales of
new mercury thermostats have been banned in California
since 2006. Waste thermostats are classified as hazardous waste but are usually
discarded into the solid waste stream, as recycling options are inconvenient and
poorly publicized at present.
--30--