Choosing and Maintaining an Amalgam Separator

An ISO-certified amalgam separator, regularly maintained, is a key to wastewater and dangerous-waste compliance in dental offices. An effective amalgam separator is required in Washington state. Be prepared to shop around for the machine that works best for you. These separators vary widely in sophistication and effectiveness.

Choosing the right separator for your dental office depends upon a number of factors, including the number of operatories, compatibility with your vacuum system, ease of operation, maintenance and replacement frequency, and whether or not waste disposal is included in the contract with the vendor. Cost is also a prime consideration and may range from $300 to over $2000, depending on whether installation and maintenance are included and whether the equipment is leased or owned, and if waste disposal fees are included.

An appropriate separator:

Should be effective, meaning that the company should be able to prove that it can remove the amalgam from the wastewater, regardless of particle size.
Offers no compromises in suction power.
Is simply designed. There will be fewer chances for something to go wrong.
Should operate quietly.
Comes with a fail-safe mechanism that protects from spills or back-ups in case of blockage.
Installs centrally so that the whole wastewater stream passes through it before discharging into the sewer system.
Should be reasonably priced. Obtain information from the companies on the total cost for all services, including cost of the unit over a 5-10 year period, before making a decision.

You may want to consider a unit that is hands-off, meaning that the dentist or staff does not have to perform a series of manual operations, or be required to handle and change filters.
The captured amalgam must be recycled. Make sure that the company which sold you the unit also arranges for the recycling of the captured amalgam. The company needs to provide you with the appropriate information on how to recycle the captured amalgam.

For more information in choosing a separator please see the articles from the Journal of the American Dental Association:

Laboratory evaluation of amalgam separators (American Dental Association, May 2002)

Evaluating amalgam separators using an international standard (American Dental Association, May 2002)

Purchasing, installing, and operating dental amalgam separators (American Dental Association, August 2003)

ISO standards are developed by the International Standards Organization. The ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies. The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. There are ISO standards developed specifically for dental amalgam separators. These standards are designed to ensure that the separator removes at least 95% of waste mercury from the dental wastewater before discharge to sewer.

The official ISO 11143 standard for amalgam separators was published on 12/1/99. Be sure that the separator you purchase was tested using the official ISO 11143 standards in place after 12/1/99. Your separator manufacturer should provide you with a copy of the one-page test report annex upon request. Don’t be fooled, some may claim that their amalgam separator is compliant with this standard and may not actually be ISO 11143 certified. Others may claim that they had their amalgam separator ISO 11143 tested before December 1, 1999. This poses a problem because their separator was only tested against the draft ISO 11143 standard and there are significant changes between the draft and the official standard.

Questions to ask amalgam waste service providers:

What is your area of service?
Do you provide “regularly scheduled pickup services” or is this on an “as needed basis”?
What kinds of amalgam waste do you accept? Wet, dry
Do you provide packaging for storage, pick-up or shipping of the amalgam waste?
How do you want the amalgam waste packaged (if you do not provide packaging)?
What kinds of amalgam waste can be packaged together?
Do you accept whole filters from the chair side trap and from the vacuum pump for recycling?
Is disinfection required for amalgam waste?
Do you accept extracted teeth with amalgam restorations?

Related information

Hazardous Waste Services Directory is a database that offers a list of companies that can help you to manage waste.

Federal Pretreatment Regulation, 40 CFR part 403, requires that all non-domestic sources of wastewater which represent significant sources of loadings which could harm POTW water systems must obtain a permit and meet local limits. Dentists must generally install and maintain an amalgam separator to meet those limits.
Amalgam Separators is a section on the Web site of the American Dental Association.

Fact Sheet - Mercury Use in Dental Amalgam from the Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC).

Mercury-Dental Topic Hub™ from the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange offers pollution prevention resources to dental offices.
Dentists reminded to keep mercury out of their waste water is a press release from 2005.