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

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

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.