Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority is launching a campaign against heavy metal next month.

No, the authority doesn't have a problem with Metallica.

Mercury is the target of an initiative by the authority and Covanta Energy — the company that operates the county's resource recovery facility in Bainbridge — that was announced Wednesday.

From April 1 through April 30, anyone who turns in thermometers and thermostats containing mercury at the Bainbridge plant or the authority's household hazardous waste facility on Harrisburg Pike will receive a digital thermometer and a $5 gift card to Lowe's.

"Obviously, it's easier to just throw these items in the trash," said Kevin Connor, manager of the resource recovery facility for Covanta. "But then it's nearly impossible for us to find it and remove it from the waste stream.

"We want to offer an incentive to make it worthwhile for people to go out of their way and bring these items to us."

The waste authority already collects raw mercury and items containing mercury at the household hazardous waste facility.

Last year, 704 pounds of mercury was collected by the authority.

The incentive program is an Earth Day campaign targeting thermometers and thermostats, which often end up in kitchen trash cans.

Earth Day is April 22.

According to the authority, the average mercury thermostat contains 4 grams of mercury and fever thermometers contain between .5 and 3 grams.

Mercury thermometers are easily identified by their silver bulbs.

If the bulb is any other color, it does not contain mercury.

Some thermometers containing gallium, indium and tin also have silver bulbs, but are typically marked as "mercury free."

 When any item containing mercury is put in a household trash can, Connor said, it's likely burned at the county incinerator. The mercury is converted to gas during incineration and is vented into the facility's smokestacks.

Connor said the stacks are equipped with devices to capture the mercury, "but it's possible some mercury escapes."

That mercury then rises into the atmosphere and is then sent back to earth in raindrops, which can end up in waterways and groundwater.

"We are very efficient at capturing mercury, but we're not 100 percent," Connor said. "If something with mercury in it is brought to us, we can get all of it out of the waste stream."

Thermometers and thermostats can be traded for a gift card and digital thermometer at the resource recovery facility at 1911 River Road, Bainbridge, from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturdays until April 30.

No other household hazardous waste will be accepted at the facility.

Any item containing mercury can be dropped off at the hazardous household waste facility, 1299 Harrisburg Pike, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com