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Tentative Agreement Reached on National Auto Mercury Switch Recovery Program

March 9, 2006

This week, representatives from the automobile and auto recycling industries, environmental community, states and the US EPA reached a tentative agreement 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 manufacturing 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.

Press Statement
Statement of Priciples
For more information on auto mercury visit the Mercury In Vehicles Page

The Ecology Center and Environmental Defense, parties to this national agreement process, helped to call national attention to this issue more than 5 years ago with the release of our "Toxics in Vehicles: Mercury" report. Since then we've partnered with many other groups across the country to campaign for a comprehensive national solution to this problem. A few highlights include:

In 2002, we 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, 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.

We are hopeful that this agreement will be finalized over the coming weeks, and that this major source of mercury to our environment will finally be eliminated.