Professional disposal of mercury fever thermometers

Whoever would no longer come in contact with mercury in their household can return their old mercury fever thermometer starting 9 October.
Austrian pharmacies will take back old mercury fever thermometers free of charge, and offer a high-quality digital fever thermometer for only 1 euro.

The thermometers will be stored in the pharmacy’s special container and disposed of professionally by Saubermacher after expiry of the campaign.

In this case, professional disposal means that the fever thermometers will be packed in a safety vessel. In this way the fever thermometers will be prepared for environmentally-friendly transport by means of rail to Hessen in Germany. In Hessen, these safety vessels will be brought into an 800 m deep, underground waste disposal site (free of follow-up monitoring) — a disused mining operation, in which open cavities will be filled with these containers. The cavities are water-free and dry. Due to the constant temperature, the containers with the fever thermometers can be brought to the surface again at any time.