A state group will look at ways to retool the program and increase the recycling rate.

PORTLAND (AP) – A state-mandated program adopted three years ago to recycle thermostats that contain mercury has fallen far short of expectations.

The Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday will look at ways to retool the program and try to boost the recycling rate which now stands at a dismal 2 percent.

One idea is to come up with ways to raise public awareness of the program.

Another would increase the number of thermostat collection bins, from the current total of 11 to about 100.

Thermostats are a major source of mercury in consumer products. Environmental officials estimate that 90 percent of all thermostats in Maine contain mercury, and together they contain at least 6,000 pounds of the toxic substance.

“A fever thermometer may have half a gram of mercury in it,” said Ann Pistell of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management. “A thermostat has three grams at a minimum. Some thermostats that also regulate central air conditioning may have six grams, which is a considerable amount of mercury.”

If it’s not recycled, the mercury could end up landfilled or incinerated, and make its way into the environment.

Mercury contamination can cause serious neurological, developmental and behavioral effects in both people and wildlife.

At present, the thermostat recycling program relies on the wholesalers who do business with heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors. When contractors replace a thermostat in a home or business, they drop the old one in a collection bin at participating wholesalers.

But only 11 of the 38 wholesalers in Maine have signed up for the program. In 2002, they collected just 1.8 pounds of mercury.

Another major stumbling block is the widespread lack of education about the issue.

Leslie Anderson, director of risk management and environmental compliance at the Dead River Company, says that when it became company policy to recycle mercury thermostats in 2001, only nine of Dead River’s 300 service technicians said they had ever heard of the issue.

“I think they need to do a better job of training because most of the contractors don’t know that this program exists,” she said.

The proposed legislation to improve the recycling program would establish collection centers at willing contractors’ business sites, as well as at transfer stations around the state.

Pistell says transfer stations would make good collection locations because the people who work there already have been trained by the state in handling toxic substances.

“They’ve been trained on how to handle it, how to manage it,” she said, “what to do if there’s a spill.”

The legislative proposal also sets an interim target that would require the collection of 100 pounds of mercury from the day the legislation goes into effect until the end of 2005.

“That is roughly 50 percent of what would be expected to come out in that time period,” said Jon Hinck, toxics project director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, “so it would be significantly ramping up the program but still short of where it would be nice to have the program get to.”

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