EPA, ISRI Partner to Extend Mercury Switch Recovery Program

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries has joined with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to extend the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program to 2021.

Nov. 21, 2018

Nov. 21, 2018—The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has joined with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other stakeholders, in the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to extend the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program (NVMSRP) to 2021.

The program was designed to recover mercury switches in older model vehicles during the recycling process and before the mercury can leak into the atmosphere.

In 2006, the U.S. EPA, ISRI, and a number of other stakeholder groups agreed to establish the NVMSRP, with the stated goal of removing mercury-containing light switches from scrap vehicles before the vehicles are flattened, shredded, and melted to make new steel. Since then, car dismantlers and scrap processors have recovered more than 6.8 million switches in the program, containing more than 7.6 tons of mercury, according to the EPA.