Generation and pollution characteristics of hazardous wastes from smelting of copper, lead and zinc in China

There are a variety of processes and reactions and numerous kinds of wastes in the non-ferrous metal smelting industry, and the links generating wastes are quite different. It is easy to cause some problems such as the difficulty in identifying waste generation nodes, unclear waste direction, unclear pollution characteristics, and so on, in the process of management and control of such hazardous wastes, thus leading to misjudgment in management. By sorting out and analyzing the sources of 22 kinds of copper, lead and zinc smelting wastes in HW48 in National Catalogue of Hazardous Wastes (NCHWs 2021) and the pollution characteristics of key wastes, such as lead skim and arsenic slag, the waste direction was identified. Finally, suggestions were put forward for improving the management of hazardous wastes from smelting of non-ferrous metals in China.