Tracking quicksilver: estimation of mercury waste from consumer products and subsequent verification by analysis of soil, water, sediment, and plant samples from the Cebu City, Philippines, landfill Dale Jo B. Buagas & Cristi Cesar F. Megraso & John Darwin O. Namata & Patrick John Y. Lim & Karen P. Gatus & Aloysius M. L. Cañete Received: 25 September 2014 /Accepted: 20 January 2015 # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 Abstract Source attribution of mercury (Hg) is critical for policy development to minimize the impact of Hg in wastes. Mercury content of consumer products and its subsequent release into the waste stream of Cebu City, Philippines, is estimated through surveys that employed validated, enumerator-administered questionnaires. Ini- tially, a citywide survey (n =1636) indicates that each household annually generates 1.07 ppm Hg (i.e., mg Hg/kg waste) and that linear and compact fluorescent lamps (17.2 %) and thermometers (52.1 %) are the major sources of Hg. A subsequent survey (n =372) in the vicinity of the city’ s municipal solid waste landfill shows that residents in the area annually generate 0.38 ppm Hg per household, which is less than the citywide mean; surprisingly though, less affluent re- spondents living closer to the landfill site reported more Hg from thermometers and sphygmomanometers. Anal- ysis of collected soil (0.238 ppm), leachate water (6.5 ppb), sediment (0.109 ppm), and three plants (0.393 to 0.695 ppm) shows no significant variation throughout five stations in and around the landfill site, although the period of collection is significant for soil (P =0.001) and Cenchrus echinatus (P =0.016). Detect- ed Hg in the landfill is considerably less than the annual estimated release, indicating that there is minimal accu- mulation of Hg in the soil or in plants. As a result of this project, a policy brief has been provided to the Cebu City council in aid of hazardous waste legislation. Keywords Mercury . Municipal solid waste landfill . Source attribution . Household hazardous waste Introduction Source attribution of mercury (Hg), while challenging due to uncertainties and scale of modeling, is critical for policy development directed toward minimizing the impact of Hg in wastes (Mukherjee et al. 2004; Lindberg et al. 2007). While majority of mercury modeling is concerned with atmospheric transport on local, regional, and global scales, fewer studies focus on municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill sources (see, for example, Mukherjee et al. 2004; Jang et al. 2005; Lindberg et al. 2005; Southworth et al. 2005; Ward et al. 2005; Flores et al. 2009; Takuwa et al. 2009; Li et al. 2010; Pirrone et al. 2010; Tretiach et al. 2011). Landfill sources are seen as significant contributors to mercury contamina- tion of the environment. For example, Mukherjee et al. (2004) estimated that in the European Union (EU), coal- Environ Monit Assess (2015) 187:138 DOI 10.1007/s10661-015-4321-0 D. J. B. Buagas : C. C. F. Megraso : J. D. O. Namata : P. J. Y. Lim(*) Department of Chemistry, University of San Carlos, Nasipit, 6000 Cebu City, Philippines e-mail: pjlim@usc.edu.ph P. J.Y. Lim e-mail: patrick.john.lim@gmail.com K. P. Gatus : A. M. L. Cañete A2D Project–Research Group for Alternatives to Development, Door 3 Mahogany Street, El Dorado Subdivision, Banilad, 6000 Cebu City, Philippines