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Comparison of soil heavy metal pollution caused by e-waste recycling activities and traditional industrial operations

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Abstract

The traditional industrial operations are well recognized as an important source of heavy metal pollution, while that caused by the e-waste recycling activities, which have sprouted in some developing countries, is often overlooked. This study was carried out to compare the status of soil heavy metal pollution caused by the traditional industrial operations and the e-waste recycling activities in the Pearl River Delta, and assess whether greater attention should be paid to control the pollution arising from e-waste recycling activities. Both the total contents and the chemical fractionation of major heavy metals (As, Cr, Cd, Ni, Pb, Cu, and Zn) in 50 surface soil samples collected from the e-waste recycling areas and 20 soil samples from the traditional industrial zones were determined. The results show that the soils in the e-waste recycling areas were mainly polluted by Cu, Zn, As, and Cd, while Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb were the major heavy metals in the soils from the traditional industrial zones. Statistical analyses consistently show that Cu, Cd, Pb, and Zn in the surface soils from both types of sites were contributed mostly by human activities, while As, Cr, and Ni in the soils were dominated by natural background. No clear distinction was found on the pollution characteristic of heavy metals in the surface soils between the e-waste recycling areas and traditional industrial zones. The potential ecological risk posed by heavy metals in the surface soils from both types of sites, which was dominated by that from Cd, ranged from low to moderate. Given the much shorter development history of e-waste recycling and its largely unregulated nature, significant efforts should be made to crack down on illegal e-waste recycling and strengthen pollution control for related activities.

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Acknowledgements

The constructive comments of the anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of this manuscript are greatly appreciated. This study was supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0800302), the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41673089 and 41472324), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2652015141), and the National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Kailing He, Zehang Sun, Xiangying Zeng & Zhiqiang Yu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Kailing He & Zehang Sun

  3. MOE Laboratory of Groundwater Circulation and Evolution, School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Yuanan Hu

  4. MOE Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Hefa Cheng

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  1. Kailing He
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  2. Zehang Sun
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  3. Yuanan Hu
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  4. Xiangying Zeng
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Correspondence to Hefa Cheng.

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He, K., Sun, Z., Hu, Y. et al. Comparison of soil heavy metal pollution caused by e-waste recycling activities and traditional industrial operations. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 9387–9398 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8548-x

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