Dental Facilities

GBMSD is encouraging dental facilities to install amalgam separators and follow the American Dental Association's (ADA) recommended best management practices for amalgam waste.

For a copy of the ADA's best management practices for amalgam waste, click here.

What is an amalgam separator?

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.