Proper Management of Mercury-including Products

抄録

Mercury has been used in a wide range of products: batteries, lighting appliances, measuring devices and more. In compliance with the Minamata Convention on Mercury, efforts have been made for the production of mercury-free alternatives, but some mercury-containing products will continue to be used in the future. Appropriate management of used mercury-containing products will continue to be indispensable. Attention and inventiveness are demanded at each stage of the management flow process, which includes discharging, collecting, transporting, storing during transshipment, intermediate processing, final disposal and recycling. Therefore mercury-containing products discharged from households should be separated from and not be mixed with other wastes. In Japan, municipalities have their respective collection methods: receiving wastes at fixed collection bases, mobile collection bases, etc., sometimes combining several methods. Regarding wastes discharged from companies, criteria have been defined for each stage of the process from storage to disposal according to the categories specified by law, and the waste is disposed of in accordance with those criteria. As a future task, the collection rate of mercury-containing products in Japan must be raised. In many developing countries where the separation of waste has just begun, priority should be put on coping with hazardous substances, as well as separation and appropriate disposal of mercury-containing waste, a typical example, should be promoted.