Throughout the United States, mercury poses a severe health and environmental threat. Based upon blood testing data, federal scientists estimated that between 200,000 and 460,000 infants are born in the United States each year with mercury levels that are associated with the loss of IQ. Mercury thermostats are a significant source of preventable mercury pollution. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that 2-3million thermostats come out of service each year. Each thermostat contains about four grams of mercury. While intact mercury thermostats do not pose a public health risk, when they are handled as wastes or disposed of in landfills or incinerators, the mercury can be released into the environment where it makes its way into lakes, rivers, and streams and contaminates fish. Fish ingestion is the primary exposure route for most Americans. Over the last two decades, the use ofmercury in U.S. thermostatmanufacturing has been reduced from15-21 tons annually to virtually zero. This striking reduction can be attributed to state legislation banning the sales of new mercury thermostats, and the subsequent ending of mercury thermostat production by the “Big 3 manufacturers,” Honeywell,White-Rodgers, and General Electric. However, ending the production and sale of new mercury thermostats addresses only part of the problem. Tens ofmillions ofmercury thermostats containing up to several hundred tons ofmercury are still in use in U.S. homes and businesses. Given that mercury thermostats can last 15 to 30 years or more, this vast reservoir of mercury currently on the walls in homes and businesses will continue to be mismanaged in the waste streamunless effective collection programs are created. In 1998, the Big 3 manufacturers developed a voluntary recycling program, administered by a non-profit entity they created called the Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC). TRC provides participating wholesalers with collection bins where HVAC contractors drop off old mercury thermostats.When the bins are full, they are shipped to TRC for recycling. Unfortunately, TRC collection data indicates that their voluntary programhas failed to collect the vast majority of mercury thermostats coming out of service. Since the program became national in 2002, TRC collected about 5.8 tons of mercury. During this ten year period, EPA conservatively estimated 70-100 tons of mercury in thermostats came out of service. Over the past decade, TRC has collected at most 8% of what EPA estimated came out of service. In some states, the TRC program barely functions, capturing only a tiny fraction of discardedmercury thermostats, and in other states the program ranges from grossly underperforming to mediocre. It’s clear that the TRC program is capturing only the tip of the iceberg. The program results are much better when the programbecomesmandatory and financial incentives are included. In 2006,Maine enacted the nation’s first comprehensive mercury thermostat collection law and has one of the highest per capita mercury thermostat collection rates in the country. Among other requirements, the law obliges thermostat manufacturers to collect mercury thermostats and provide a $5 financial incentive to encourage professionals and homeowners to recycle thermostats. Vermont enacted a similar law in 2008; in 2011, Vermont had the highest per capita mercury thermostat collection rate in the country. Together, these two programs are consistently the national leaders. This is our second evaluation of the TRC program. After we published the first evaluation in February 2010, TRC stopped releasing its program collection results, and removed the historic data fromits website. Instead ofmaking fundamental improvements, TRC chose to sacrifice program transparency and hide the lack of progress. In this report, we rely on those program results TRC is mandated to provide by state law, and we estimate program results in other states based upon the recently released TRC 2011-2012 “progress report.” These estimations provide an adequate foundation for overall program evaluation and state-by-state comparisons. However, the fact that TRC chooses to withhold the actual collection data, even though they are collected and readily available to TRC, is perhaps the best indication of poor program performance. Adopting strongmandatory collection state laws with financial incentives and performance standards for recyclingmercury thermostats is themost important change needed to drastically improve the TRC programand preventmercury pollution. This report reviews the threat posed by mercury thermostats and makes recommendations for state programs to improve their collection rates. The full set of recommended changes is detailed at the end of the report.