However, articles contaminated with mercury or its compounds must be disposed of as hazardous waste. The TSO has collection containers for the recycling of mercury and mercury sulphide compounds. Cleanup of a mercury spill from a broken thermometer generates large quantities of mercury-contaminated waste that is very costly to dispose of. For the University, it is far less expensive to obtain an electronic thermometer than to pay disposal costs of a broken mercury thermometer. The TSO recommends that you do not buy new mercury-containing equipment for use at ISU when good alternatives are available.
Mercury compounds are currently very expensive to dispose of.
Every attempt to find alternatives to using mercury compounds should be made. The cost per gram of disposal is approximately 50-200 times the purchase cost. If you have mercury compounds to dispose of, consider sulphide precipitation as a final step in your process. Currently, mercury sulphide is the only mercury compound which is accepted for recycling. Older electrical transformers often contain PCB dielectric oils.