Illinois Starts Collecting Mercury Thermostats

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has announced a new initiative to expand the collection and recycling of mercury thermostats.

The new collection initiative will expand the availability of current recycling opportunities for mercury thermostats. Long-term household hazardous waste collection sites in both Rockford and Naperville have agreed to collect and recycle mercury thermostats through an industry take-back program. This will provide two drop-off locations in Northern Illinois for homeowners or “do-it-yourselfers” that purchase replacement thermostats. 

The Product Stewardship Institute, Inc., a national organization that seeks to reduce environmental impacts from consumer product and the Thermostat Recycling Corp., a non-profit entity created by Honeywell, White-Rodgers and General Electric, will administer the five-state pilot project.  The pilot will run through the end of the year in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington State, and Florida.

The Illinois EPA estimates that somewhere between 88,000 and 132,000 mercury thermostats are disposed of annually in Illinois. A total of 44 thermostat wholesale stores are participating in the industry take-back program. In 2004, these wholesalers collected over 5,000 mercury thermostats for recycling throughout the state.