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There is more than one way to get the mercury out! States, municipalities, regional agencies and sewerage treatment plants have all developed successful programs to help schools go mercury-free. We’re not going to tell you that it’s easy; but it is extremely important. There can be significant barriers to overcome—lack of understanding or priority for this issue among top school managers and lack of funds to replace mercury-containing equipment often top the list. But it can be done, if those organizing the mercury collection and/or education programs take these into account.

One approach that has been used successfully is the mercury pledge program for schools. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) pioneered this approach in their Mercury Awareness Program with a simple pledge that they asked schools to sign:

We pledge to continue working with our solid waste management district, the IDEM, and/or the Household Hazardous Waste Task Force to keep mercury out of our schools and environment in order to protect the quality of children’s health and Indiana’s air, land, and water. We understand that mercury performs a useful function in thermometers and other instruments; however, it can also harm the environment.

Our school is committed to protecting our students and the environment. Therefore, we, the undersigned Indiana school, have established these goals to minimize the impact of mercury on the environment and encourage our students and their parents to conduct sound environmental practices as well.

To achieve these goals, we pledge to participate in the Mercury Awareness Program. As a participant in this program we will:

• Inventory our buildings for mercury containing items
• Purchase non mercury-containing substitutes where possible*
• Implement a phase-out plan for mercury containing devices*
• Turn in our mercury and mercury containing items for recycling

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has also created a pledge program, the Mercury Free Zone, which they have enhanced with a mercury-sniffing dog that goes to schools all around the state to both promote mercury reduction and actually find unknown sources of mercury at schools.

Clancy, the MPCA's mercury-detecting dog, is an integral part of the MPCA's Mercury-Free Zone program. To learn more about Clancy, click here.

Another approach, the bounty program, recognizes that most schools are hard-pressed to underwrite the costs of switching to nonmercury alternatives all at once. Thus, a bounty is provided for each thermometer (and sometimes barometers and sphygmomanometers) to allow purchase of new equipment.

Check out the school mercury bounty programs sponsored by the Milwaukee and Superior sewage treatment plants in Wisconsin, which both offered the following rewards to schools for turning in their mercury equipment:

• Thermometers--$5
• Barometers--$50
• Blood Pressure Gauge--$20

Another variation on the mercury collection program is the school chemical cleanout. Schools are assisted with inventory and cleanout of all unwanted, unlabeled or unknown hazardous lab chemicals, including mercury and mercury compounds. Schools may also receive training in proper laboratory chemical management and prepare lab chemical management plans to minimize future risks. The Vermont School Science Lab Chemical and Mercury Cleanout Project, a one-time science lab chemical and mercury cleanout project for all Vermont middle and secondary schools, was one of the first and best programs of this kind.

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