Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Notable case, Guiyu (Shantou), Guangdong, China

Guiyu e-waste town

贵屿

A town in Guangdong that became the world's best-known centre for backyard dismantling of electronic waste: circuit boards burned in the open and acid baths to recover metals. It is the case on which the effects of informal recycling on soil, rivers and children were measured.

Status
Contained
Area
5,200 ha on land1
People affected
60,000 (2005)2
Media
soil, sediment, surface water, air, living organisms
Kind of site
e-waste
  1. Area. Area of the town, 52 km² (Wikipedia, read in 2026); not a measured contamination perimeter.
  2. People affected. E-waste workers at the peak of activity (Wikipedia); not an estimate of the exposed population.

Contaminants

Metals

Organic compounds

Mixtures and waste

Status

Contained

In 2013 Guangdong Province approved a pollution plan; from 2015 processing was moved outside the built-up area and by 2017 most workshops had been gathered in a dedicated industrial park. Soil and sediment contaminated by the earlier work remain in many areas (Wikipedia, read in 2026).

Story

In Guiyu thousands of small family workshops took apart computers, phones and circuit boards imported from abroad. Metals were recovered by heating the boards, burning cables in the open and dissolving components in acid beside the watercourses. In 2005, at the peak, about 60,000 people worked in the trade and more than a hundred truckloads of waste arrived each day.

The case became known in December 2001 through the Basel Action Network investigation, later released as the documentary "Exporting Harm". Subsequent studies found lead and copper in road dust hundreds of times higher than at places 8 and 30 km away, and dioxin levels among the highest ever measured.

A first clean-up attempt in 2007 changed little. In 2013 the province approved a comprehensive plan; from 2015 processing was moved to the edge of town and by 2017 almost all workshops were inside the national circular-economy pilot industrial park. Since China's import ban, the waste handled is mainly domestic.

Timeline

  1. 2001December: the Basel Action Network documents the work done in Guiyu.
  2. 2005Peak of activity: about 60,000 workers.
  3. 2007First clean-up efforts; the study on children's blood lead is published.
  4. 2013Guangdong Province approves a comprehensive pollution plan.
  5. 2015Processing is moved to the edge of town.
  6. 2017Most workshops are gathered in the circular-economy industrial park.

Health

In the study by Huo and colleagues (2007) of 226 children under six, mean blood lead was 15.3 µg/dL in Guiyu against 9.94 µg/dL in neighbouring Chendian; 81.8% of Guiyu children (135 of 165) were above 10 µg/dL, against 37.7% in Chendian. Blood lead rose with age and with closeness to the workshops.

Remediation

  1. 2015relocation of activityWorkshops moved out of the built-up area into an industrial park with centralised plants, largely complete by 2017.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.

Plants

Fungi

The rest are on the contaminant pages.

Nearby

Notable case, Shangba (Wengyuan County), China

Dabaoshan Mine and Shangba village

287 km

  • Cadmium
  • Lead
  • Zinc
  • Copper

Phytoremediation

Notable case, Annan District, Taiwan

Former An-Shun plant, Tainan

387 km

  • Dioxins and furans
  • Mercury
  • Phenols and chlorophenols

Microbial bioremediation

Sources

  1. Huo X. et al. Elevated blood lead levels of children in Guiyu, an electronic waste recycling town in China. Environmental Health Perspectives 115(7), Environmental Health Perspectives (abstract via Europe PMC), 2007
  2. Electronic waste in Guiyu, Wikipedia, 2026

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.