POUGHKEEPSIE – Covanta Hudson Valley Renewable Energy, the company that operates the Dutchess County Resource Recovery facility in Poughkeepsie, will start to collect mercury for recycling.

Company official John Waffenschmidt said the mercury collected at other facilities they operate nationwide comes predominantly from thermostats.

“Nationally what we’ve gotten so far from January 2009 until June 2010, we collected 9,400 thermostats, almost 5,000 thermometers, and an additional bunch mercury that we got in glass jars where people had them in their houses, like a pound of mercury, for a total of 764 pounds of mercury from the program,” he said.

The Dutchess collection is being held in conjunction with the county’s household hazardous waste collection program, to be held the remainder of this year on September 11 at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Millbrook, and October 9 and November 6 at the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency.

Residents will receive a $5 gift card to a local home center for turning in mercury containing household items.