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Mercury Switch Recovery Program Collects One Millionth Auto Switch

03/03/2008 - The National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program and its partners celebrate a milestone with the collection of the one millionth mercury auto switch.

The National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program (NVMSRP) and its partners celebrated a milestone last week with the collection of the one millionth mercury auto switch.
 
Launched in August 2006, the NVMSRP is a collaboration among EPA, steelmakers, automobile manufacturers, recyclers, states, and environmental groups. Working together, the program’s participants have made significant headway toward reducing the amount of toxic mercury released from scrap vehicles before they are processed to make new steel.
 

Each year, the steel industry recycles more than 14 million tons of steel from old vehicles, making them the most recycled consumer goods in America.
 
Most vehicles that have reached the end of their useful life are dismantled, stripped, flattened, shredded and melted to make new steel. If mercury switches are not removed from retired vehicles, a significant amount of that mercury can be released into the environment as air emissions.

Mercury automotive switch removal is an easy, cost-effective and energy-efficient way to reduce emissions. Dismantlers can find and remove most switches in a few minutes.
 
Mercury switch removal conserves energy and natural resources by promoting automotive steel recycling while reducing mercury contamination.
"By pulling mercury switches before they enter the recycling system, we are improving the health of our environment and the health of generations of U.S. residents," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "The one millionth switch may be just another drop in a bucket, but it's a big step toward erasing the environmental impacts of mercury air emissions in America."

 
Steel industry representatives and other partnering organizations gathered at the Pull-A-Part in Conley, Ga., where the millionth mercury switch was removed. Steel industry representatives at the ceremony included Eric Lamore, Nucor; Steve Messier, Nucor; Anna M. Schorr, Nucor; Jon Howley, Ipsco; and Jim Schultz, American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
 
The milestone highlights the efforts of NVMSRP to reduce the release of mercury by collecting convenience light switches from scrap vehicles before they are flattened, shredded, and melted to make new steel. Convenience light switches, in hood and trunk lights for example, contain mercury and were used in domestic car production before 2003. The NVMSRP has set out to recover 80 to 90% of available auto mercury switches by 2017. It is estimated that most pre-2003 vehicles will be off the roads by that time.
 
In 2007 the Program collected over 1500 pounds of mercury in 720,297 switches in its efforts through its 6,265 participating recyclers. With approximately 40 million mercury vehicle switches remaining in vehicles in use, NVMSRP is working to collect the switches before they reach the scrap metal market, and plans to maximize participation in 2008.
 
NVMSRP is a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), the Steel Manufacturers Association, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, the Automotive Recyclers Association, Environmental Defense, the Ecology Center (Ann Arbor), and representatives of the Environmental Council of the States. For more information concerning the program, visit http://www.steel.org/mercuryswitch.
 
AISI serves as the voice of the North American steel industry in the public policy arena and advances the case for steel in the marketplace as the preferred material of choice. AISI also plays a lead role in the development and application of new steels and steelmaking technology. AISI is comprised of 31 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace steelmakers, and 130 associate and affiliate members who are suppliers to or customers of the steel industry.