August Featured Collection Partner of the Month: Covanta
Covanta has partnered with several entities to help facilitate mercury thermostat recycling in various states and contribute to TRC’s overall collection numbers. In April 2015 Covanta Tulsa, Locke Supply and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) partnered to provide a convenient way to responsibly recycle mercury containing thermostats in Oklahoma.
In October 2015 Covanta and the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) partnered to offer a mercury thermostat and thermometer drop off event as part of a larger annual recycling day in Onondaga County. The event offered a $10 Lowe’s gift card to residents who turned in either mercury-containing item. A great success, more than 150 mercury thermostats were placed in TRC’s recycling bin at the end of the day. The event is taking place again this August 15th, with the added environmental incentive of TRC buying 500 lbs. of carbon off-sets for every mercury thermostat returned.
In addition, SEMASS (Southeastern Massachusetts Resource Recovery Facility) is operated and managed by Covanta SEMASS Partnership and has recently joined Covanta in engaging in outreach to communities on behalf of TRC. By providing recycling bins to municipal recycling locations in Southeastern Massachusetts, SEMASS is helping to provide mercury thermostat disposal options to residents at their familiar Hazardous Household Waste disposal centers while at the same time diverting costs of disposing these mercury thermostats for the HHW facilities.
“By partnering with TRC, Covanta has been able to help educate homeowners and neighbors about recycling difficult to handle materials, such as mercury thermostats, in a safe and convenient manner. These programs have helped recycle over 3,000 pounds of mercury,” said Kenneth Armellino, Director of Environmental Science and Community Affairs with Covanta.
Covanta operates 71 different facilities across 21 states, as well as Canada and Europe and their mission is to provide sustainable waste and energy solutions to ensure that no waste is ever wasted. Covanta achieves this by providing communities and businesses with solutions to some of today’s most complex environmental challenges. With a global network of Energy-from-Waste and material processing facilities, Covanta is preserving valuable natural resources and generating clean energy for our client communities and the world we live in.