Alliance Forms to Promote Recycling of Mercury-Containing Lighting

The Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers (ALMR) has partnered with the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association in an outreach program for businesses, which use 85 percent of the fluorescent lighting in the United States. The outreach program, which will include meetings and workshops around the country, features a CD-ROM that has just been released -- available at no charge -- that gives businesses the resources and information they need to set up recycling programs.

The USEPA is funding the project.

Nationwide, almost 700 million mercury-containing lamps are discarded each year, yet the recycling rate is below 24 percent, according to a press release from ALMR.  Most of these lamps are still discarded with municipal solid waste that is ultimately landfilled or incinerated.  In order to encourage better management of mercury from spent lamps, the alliance is targeting its outreach efforts toward the people who can best contribute to diverting these lamps from municipal solid waste landfills.  The objective is to get enough information to the right people so that both mandatory and voluntary recycling increases from the current rate to about 40 percent by 2006 and 80 percent by 2009. 

To stimulate recycling participation, the alliance has produced a CD-ROM that gives businesses an overview of the issue, contact and resource information on each state's regulatory requirements, specific messages for targeted business sectors and contact information for recycling companies that can help businesses set up recycling programs. 

The CD can be obtained by contacting mail@almr.org or by calling (707) 942-2197.

In addition, SWANA is developing a Business Implementation Guide for members of the solid waste industry. The association will offer other educational materials, a public service announcement and ongoing workshop and conference opportunities to make this information available.