RWS Sponsors Final Mercury Product Collection September 22

Thermometers, fluorescent light bulbs, button cell batteries among items to be collected to keep mercury out of waste stream

Residents of Portland and surrounding communities that are served by Regional Waste Systems, Inc. (RWS) disposed of products containing mercury on Saturday, Sept. 22, at the University of Southern Maine satellite parking lot on Marginal Way in Portland.

The mercury product collection was offered free to any resident of the 27 cities and towns that are part of RWS. The Portland collection was the final in a series of collections organized and held this summer and fall by RWS as part of an ongoing, comprehensive effort to reduce the amount of mercury that enters the environment.

For more information about disposing of mercury products, contact Mark Arienti, environmental manager of RWS, at 773-6465.

Mercury is a toxic element that can affect the environment and human health. Besides mercury thermometers, common household products that may contain mercury include fluorescent lamps, button cell batteries, non-digital thermostats, certain electrical switches and relays, and certain medical devices such as non-digital blood pressure cuffs. These items should not be disposed of with other trash.

Mercury collections were also held in Windham, Waterboro, Bridgton, Scarborough and Yarmouth. A complete schedule of events with locations is posted at http://www.regionalwaste.org or at http://www.wolfenews.com.

The cities and towns served by RWS are: Baldwin, Bridgton, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Gray, Harrison, Hiram, Hollis, Limington, Lyman, Naples, North Yarmouth, Ogunquit, Parsonsfield, Porter, Portland, Pownal, Scarborough, South Portland, Standish, Waterboro, Windham, and Yarmouth.

The collection were handled for RWS by Clean Harbors of South Portland, which will properly dispose of the mercury as a hazardous material.

Organizers tout the program as the most effective way to collect and dispose of items with mercury while giving residents the opportunity to take an active part in reducing mercury release into the environment.

"It's important that we do all that we can to reduce the amount of mercury that gets into the waste stream," said Mark Arienti, environmental manager at RWS. "When disposed of improperly, this material can adversely impact human health and the environment. This program allows residents in our member communities to rid their homes of common items containing mercury in an environmentally safe and convenient way."

RWS also last fall installed new carbon equipment that has reduced by 85 percent the mercury emissions from items incinerated after being disposed of in the trash. Buoyed by the new equipment, the mercury-reduction efforts to date at RWS have enabled it to meet new state and federal guidelines for mercury emissions, RWS officials said. The mercury collection program will enable RWS to even further reduce those emissions.

Mercury is emitted from waste-to-energy plants when products containing mercury are thrown away in the trash and enter the waste stream. It is not a byproduct of the burning process, but rather the result of products such as fever thermometers and fluorescent lamps in the solid waste stream. Last fall, RWS teamed up with the Portland Water District to hold a mercury thermometer exchange program. RWS gave out 300 digital thermometers to area residents who turned in those containing mercury.

Regional Waste Systems, Inc. is a non-profit solid waste management corporation that is owned and controlled by 21 cities and towns, and also has six associate member towns. RWS is also the largest municipal recycling organization in the state. Established in 1974 after Portland, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough decided to form a cooperative to handle their waste disposal, today RWS is governed by a 28-member board, consisting of officials appointed from member towns. RWS accepts solid waste and recycled materials from these communities and also a comprehensive, state-of-the-art recycling program with more than 100 recycling bins in 60 locations. For additional information on RWS, visit the RWS web site, http://www.regionalwaste.org.

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