General Motors to Pay $2.8 Million for Mercury Cleanup
24.06.11
Unrestricted Motors will pay a dozen states more than $2.8 million as part of a legal settlement intended to help keep mercury out of the nation’s air and sprinkle.
As the Chicago Tribune reports, the money will help pay for the removal of mercury-containing switches from older vehicles before they are scrapped. The toxic metal is released into the air during the smelting manipulate used to recycle the vehicles.
Health authorities say substantial exposure to mercury is a serious threat to children and fetuses, and can reason brain, heart and kidney damage, among other problems.
Beginning with model year 2003, GM and other automakers started using mercury-loose control switches for anti-lock brakes and convenience lights inside trunks and under hoods. In the finished, devices in older cars have accounted for as much as 11 tons of mercury pollution every year.
“This step will help stipulate the funds necessary to retrieve these components from cars before they go out of commission,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose mediation helped negotiate the settlement, said in a news release . “It is an important part of our efforts nationwide to diminish the level of mercury in the environment, which poses a health risk to everyone but especially to children.”
Source: FairWarning
Live Wire: Recycle CFL bulbs at home stores
23.06.11
Q: I started using CFL bulbs last year and they don't last as eat one's heart out as the package claims. So far, I have two that have burned out. What is the proper way to dispose of them? I live in rural Cumberland County, not the city. - A.A., Fayetteville
A: Recycle them.
That way, the pocket-sized amount of mercury in them can be recaptured instead of possibly leaking out into the environment if the bulbs get broken at the landfill.
You'll have to take a short trip to do that. Even if you lived in the bishopric, you couldn't drop the bulbs in your blue recycling bin along with your old newspapers and empty milk jugs. They're not collected by the city or county recycling operations.
But they're accepted for recycling at Lowe's and Proficient in Depot stores, and for free.
If there's just no way you can get to one of those stores and you feel you have to get rid of the bulb right this second, then put it in a plastic bag and seal the bag before putting it into the bullshit.
Source: Fayetteville Observer
Councillor Marcel Mahfoud, who is a emissary on the Metropolitan Waste Management Group, said the program prevents the release of mercury into the environment and reduces this jeopardize. “Recycling also allows the glass, metal and other materials that