Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Mercury waste management in China: implications on the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: REVIEW
  • Mercury cycles and their management
  • Published:
Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Existing management standards in China for mercury waste classification and disposal and those of the Minamata Convention on Mercury (the Convention) differ to some extent. To address this knowledge gap, herein, we introduced the mercury-related industrial sectors, solid waste management regulations, and policies, and analyzed the influence of the Convention’s definition and related technical guidelines on mercury waste management in China. The results revealed several pressing issues for China: inconsistency in the classification of mercury wastes between the Convention and the National Catalogue of Hazardous Wastes (NCHW), insufficient specificity in the declaration of mercury wastes, and lack of disposal capacity and practices on liquid mercury disposal. Accordingly, we analyzed the need to improve the mercury waste management system and proposed suggestions to enhance the capacity building for mercury waste management in an environmentally sound way. This study contributed to the understanding of relevant government apparatus to enhance the current solid waste supervision system, improve the existing standard system on mercury waste identification and disposal, and facilitate the implementation of the Convention.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China (2022) China submitted the first national report of Minamata Convention on Mercury (in Chinese). https://www.mee.gov.cn/ywdt/zbft/202201/t20220124_968094.shtml. Accessed 24 Jan 2022

  2. United Nations Environment Programme (2020) Report of the conference of the parties to the minamata convention on mercury on the work of its third meeting. UNEP/MC/COP.3/Dec.5

  3. United Nations Environment Programme (2020) Decision adopted by the third conference of the parties to the minamata convention on mercury. UNEP/MC/COP.3/23

  4. United Nations Environment Programme (2021) Report on the intersessional work on mercury waste. UNEP/MC/COP.4/8*

  5. Guangle Q, Xinbin F, Wang S (2005) Mercury and methylmercury in riparian soil, sediments, mine-waste calcines, and moss from abandoned Hg mines in east Guizhou province, southwestern China. Appl Geochem 20:627–638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2004.09.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Li P, Feng X, Shang L (2008) Mercury pollution from artisanal mercury mining in Tongren, Guizhou, China. Appl Geochem 23(8):2055–2064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2008.04.020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Sun H, Li Y, Ji Y (2009) Spatial distribution and ecological significance of heavy metals in soils from Chatian Mercury Mining Deposit, Western Hunan province (in Chinese). Environ Sci 30(4):1159–1165

    Google Scholar 

  8. Qiu G, Feng X, Wang S (2006) Environmental contamination of mercury from Hg-mining areas in Wuchuan, northeastern Guizhou, China. Env Pollut 14293:549–558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2005.10.015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Li B (2017) Pollution characteristics and risk analysis of mercury containing wastes in primary mercury mining, dressing and smelting industry (in Chinese). Environ Sci 02:96–97

    Google Scholar 

  10. Li B, Chen G, Zhang Z (2018) Characteristic analysis and disposal countermeasures of mercury-containing wastes in PVC production industry (in Chinese). Environ Prot Chem Indus 38(5):514–548

    Google Scholar 

  11. Li X (2020) Characteristics of mercury emission and migration in circulating fluidized bed coal-fire units. Dissertation. North China Electric Power University (Beijing)

  12. Cao Q, Deng S, Wang X, Zhang F, Zhang C (2012) Measurement of mercury content in solid by-products of coal-fired power plants and analysis of its impact on the environment. In: Academic annual conference proceedings of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, vol 3, pp 2131–2135

  13. Wang Z (2013) Research on mercury emission rules and synergistic control technology of mercury in coal-fired power plants. Dissertation. Nanjing Normal University

  14. Meng Y, Wang S (2012) Study on mercury re-emissions during fly ash utilization (in Chinese). Environ Sci 33(9): 2993–2999

  15. Chen L (2019) Experimental study on mercury emission characteristics of a 350MW ulter-low emission coal-fired power plant. Dissertation. Southeast University

  16. Dong Z (2019) Study on mercury emission characteristics and estimation of ultra-low emission coal-fired power plants. Dissertation. Zhejiang University

  17. Liu S, Huang J, Yu R (2021) Mercury adsorption characteristics of flu ash formed in industrial coal-fired boilers in flue gas circulation mode. Res Environ Sci 34(3):549–557. https://doi.org/10.13198/j.issn.1001-6929.2020.05.32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Li B, Qi G, Hou H (2018) Pollution characteristics and risk analysis of mercury containing waste in a lead smelting enterprise (in Chinese). Min Metall 27(1):66–72

    Google Scholar 

  19. Wu Q, Wang S, Hui M (2017) Mercury flow during waste acid disposal processes (in Chinese). Chin J Environ Eng 11(9): 4965–4970

  20. Duan Z, Su H, Wang F (2016) Mercury emission characteristics and mercury concentrations of municipal solid waste in waste incineration plants (in Chinese). Environ Sci 37(10):3766–3773

    Google Scholar 

  21. Liu M, Chen L, Xu Z (2012) Mercury emission characteristics from municipal solid waste incineration in pearl river delta region (in Chinese). Acta Sci Circum 33(11):2953–2958

    Google Scholar 

  22. Long H (2013) Research on the source apportionment of mercury in typical enterprise of the regenerated mercury industry. Dissertation. Xiangtan University, 2013

  23. United Nations Environment Programme (2020) China’s submission according to paragraph 5(c) of Article 5 of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. https://www.mercuryconvention.org/sites/default/files/documents/notification/China_Article5_5c.pdf. Accessed 28 July 2020

  24. United Nations Environment Programme (2020) First full national report of the Minamata Convention on Mercury 2021—China. https://www.mercuryconvention.org/sites/default/files/documents/national_report/Report_China_2021.English.pdf. Accessed 28 July 2020

  25. United Nations Environment Programme (2019) First biennial short report for the Minamata Convention on Mercury 2019—China. https://www.mercuryconvention.org/sites/default/files/documents/national_report/Report_CHN_2019.pdf. Accessed 24 Dec 2019

  26. United Nations Environment Programme (2018) Global mercury waste assessment 2018. https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/chemicals-waste/what-we-do/mercury/global-mercury-assessment. Accessed 12 Dec 2022

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22176200), and Ordos Industrial Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talent Team Project and Global Environment Facility/World Band project—Capacity Strengthening for Implementation of Minamata Convention on Mercury Project (P151281).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing, 100035, China

    Ziying Zhao, Jini Yang & Mei Zhao

  2. Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100035, China

    Jianxin Zhu

Authors
  1. Ziying Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jini Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mei Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jianxin Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianxin Zhu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhao, Z., Yang, J., Zhao, M. et al. Mercury waste management in China: implications on the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 25, 2584–2598 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01742-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01742-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation