Section 2. Legislative findings.
The General Assembly finds and declares as follows:
(1) Waterways throughout this Commonwealth have been
placed under fish consumption advisory warnings due to high
levels of mercury contamination.
(2) Human exposure to mercury from thermostats is
primarily through improper disposal of items in landfills or
through incineration.
(3) Mercury thermostats represent the largest amount of
mercury in ordinary household products. A single mercury
thermostat contains between three and five grams of mercury.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency's 2002
estimates, each year about six to eight tons of mercury from
discarded thermostats end up in solid waste facilities and
between one and two tons are released into the air.
(4) Electronic programmable thermostats that do not
contain mercury are readily available and can save consumers
considerable money in energy costs when used properly. Snap-
switch thermostats that function like mercury thermostats,
but contain no mercury, are also available.
(5) The Commonwealth supports shared responsibility for
all stakeholders including manufacturers, retailers,
wholesalers, local and state governments working to resolve
those issues and efforts to reduce mercury entering the
atmosphere and water supply from all sources in the most
cooperative and cost-effective means available.
(6) The nonprofit Thermostat Recycling Corporation
(TRC), created and supported by thermostat manufacturers, is
a voluntary program designed to collect mercury thermostats
from wholesalers. The TRC has been operating in this
Commonwealth since 2000 and has recycled almost 30,000
thermostats, thereby diverting more than 284 pounds of
mercury in seven years in Pennsylvania. This Commonwealth has
been a consistently high-performing state under the program,
with collections higher than all but five other states in
2007. Collections in Pennsylvania peaked at 7,019 thermostats
in 2006.
(7) It is in the public interest to increase the scope
and effectiveness of mercury thermostat collection programs
through promotion and expansion of recycling efforts and
banning the sale, installation and disposal of mercury
thermostats in this Commonwealth.