To take the example of mercury waste, up until the 1970s in Taiwan the important industrial chemical sodium hydroxide was produced from brine by the mercury cell process, in which liquid mercury is used as a cathode for electrolysis. For every metric ton of product, some 500 grams of mercury was released into the air and water.
以汞汙泥為例，民國六十年代以前，我國採用水銀電解法電解鹽水產制液鹼，每一噸產量大約會釋出五百克的汞到空氣和水中。