What Makes for a Great Thermostat Day?
Each of us has those moments of joy and zest in our respective professions and personal lives when events seem to align and work together in perfect harmony. It’s when every piece of the jigsaw puzzle fits quickly and easily.
Imagine the delight I felt when I received an email a few months into our correspondence from Aaron Oosterbaan, smart home product manager for Progress Residential, who wrote, “We are a GO for thermostat recycling in our Florida markets! We are replacing about 700 thermostats per month in Florida, so we’ll likely encounter some mercury-containing T-stats.”
What’s the expression: “You just made my day.”
We view Progress Residential as important and, admittedly, an enthusiastic partner. They describe themselves as “one of the largest providers of high-quality, single-family rental homes in the United States with over 66,000 homes across 29 of our nation’s fastest growing metro areas.”
In a follow-up email to our original phone call I received from Mr. Oosterbaan, he wrote: “Hi Danielle. I appreciated our talk the other day and am excited to have the opportunity to recycle mercury thermostats from the 60,000+ homes from which we will be replacing old thermostats. At the same time, we roll out TRC mercury thermostat recycling bins at our 19 market offices, I’d like to also roll out non-mercury thermostat recycling bins.”
This degree of enthusiasm and participation speaks highly of Mr. Oosterbaan and the company he represents. It’s clear that they understand the need for a safe, reliable and efficient way to recycle mercury-containing and other thermostats as they proceed with refurbishing homes for the rental market.
And given that we have successfully implemented this recycling process for more than 20 years, this seems like the beginning of a perfect partnership.
Our mission from the beginning has been to promote the safe collection and proper disposal of mercury-containing thermostats. I’d say our promotion’s continuing success was evident the day we received the call from Progress Residential, who will join us in keeping mercury out of the waste stream in order to protect the environment.