Tentative OK for plan to recycle mercury automobile switches

Michigan
Environmental Report

Volume 24 . Number 2
April 2006

MEC STAFF

President
Lana Pollack

Office Manager and
Assistant to the President
Judy Bearup

Policy Director
James Clift

Senior Policy Advisor
Dave Dempsey

Campaign Coordinator
Roshani Deraniyagle-Dantas

Development Director
Andy Draheim

Education Specialist
Keith Etheridge

Communications Specialist
Elizabeth Fedorchuk

Energy Policy Director
David Gard

Land Programs Director
Brad Garmon

Project Manager and Development Associate
Brianna Gerard

Health Policy Director
Tess Karwoski

Deputy Policy Director
Kate Madigan

Communicatons Director
Hugh McDiarmid, Jr.

Energy Policy Specialist
Dusty Myers

Land Programs Associate
Benjamin Stupka

MER Design & Layout
Rose Homa

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Tentative OK for plan to recycle mercury automobile switches

Representatives from the automobile and auto recycling industries, environmental community, including MEC member group Ecology Center, states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached a tentative agreement in March on elements of a national program for recovering up to 80 tons of mercury switches from scrapped automobiles, most of which now ends up in our air when auto scrap is remelted in steel recycling plants.

Auto switches from pre-2003 automobiles represent the largest intentionally-manufactured source of mercury, surpassed only by coal-fired power plants and municipal incinerators. The agreement, once finalized, would provide a major commitment of resources from automakers, steel companies, auto recyclers and government agencies to aggressively address this significant environmental and public health problem.

The Ecology Center and Environmental Defense, parties to this national agreement process, helped to call national attention to this issue more than five years ago with the release of their Toxics in Vehicles: Mercury report. Since then they have partnered with many other groups across the country to campaign for a comprehensive national solution to this problem. A few highlights include:

In 2002, the groups formed a coalition with the steel and auto recycling industries-called the Partnership for Mercury-Free Vehicles-to advance a common platform that advocated for automaker responsibility in addressing the problem.
In 2003, Maine passed the first comprehensive law in the country that required automakers to pay for switch collection, including incentives for auto dismantlers to participate in the program.
In the last two years, several other states have followed suit with similar legislation (NJ, AK, RI and NC) or have created their own voluntary programs to address the problem (e.g., MI, WI, PA, CO, OR and MN). Additional states have been pursuing legislation this year as well. The leadership of these state efforts has been critical to reaching the tentative national agreement.

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