Programs to Encourage Recycling Used Lamps Containing Mercury Gain $2 Million

(10/31/03) To promote the safe recycling of mercury-containing lamps by commercial and industrial users, E.P.A. has awarded ten cooperative agreements for broad-based outreach public education campaigns. The recipients are: Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers (Calistoga, Calif.); California Department of Toxic Substances Control (Sacramento); Center for Ecological Technology (Pittsfield, Mass.); Hawaii Department of Health (Honolulu); Northeast Waste Management Officials' Association (Boston, Mass.); Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (Seattle, Wash.); Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (Akwesasne, N.Y.); Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (Nashville); University of South Carolina (Columbia), and Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (Waterbury). Every year, nearly 600 million mercury-containing lamps are sold around the country; approximately 96 percent are the fluorescent bulbs commonly used in schools, office buildings, hospitals and homes. In July 1999, E.P.A. added mercury-containing lamps to the universal waste plan to more effectively store, transport, collect these wastes as well as to provide stronger safeguards to keep mercury-containing used lamps out of municipal landfills and incinerators. Robert Springer, Director of EPA's Office of Solid Waste, announced the recipients at the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials' (ASTSWMO) yearly meeting in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24. (ASTSWMO supports the environmental agencies of the states and trust territories.) For more information, go to: HYPERLINK "http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/id/univwast/lamp.htm" http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/id/univwast/lamp.htm or use the RCRA Call Center toll-free at 800-424-9346 or call 703-412-9810 in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. To learn more about ASTSWMO, go to: http://www.astswmo.org/ .

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