GBMSD is administering a $50,000 grant funded by the Wisconsin Department of Naturals Resources for dental offices. GBMSD is assisting dental offices in Brown and Outagamie counties in the capture and proper disposal of mercury amalgam fillings to prevent mercury from entering the environment.  GBMSD is offering $500 rebates to dental offices that voluntarily install equipment that will trap the mercury amalgam that is normally washed down the sanitary sewers as the fillings are replaced or removed from dental patients' mouths. 

The chemical and mechanical breakdown of dental amalgam releases mercury into a particle or dissolved form.  Conventional wastewater treatment plants are not able to remove all mercury from its wastewater treatment process, so mercury captured in a wastewater treatment plant's effluent or biosolids can be released into the environment.  Amalgam separators are able to capture 95% or more of the amalgam waste, so it is recommended that amalgam waste be recycled.

To learn more about the mercury grant program, please contact John Kennedy at (920) 432-4893.