Hi,

I was wondering about safe disposal of photo chemicals, both b&w and color. I don't have a septic system, I have the regular-type plumbing. I've been concerned about it...currently I dilute everything down before I dump it in the drain. Will this cause major problems with our plumbing in the future? Is there another way to dispose of chemicals? Should I do silver recovery before disposing them?

Any advice would be most appreciated, as I am totally in love with photography and do not want to give it up, but I have my parents' plumbing to think about.

Thanks,

Erin C.

-- Erin C. (ericon_22@hotmail.com), April 29, 2000

Answers

There was a good article on this subject in the last issue of Photo Techniques Magazine. I am a small volume user so I usually flush mine down the drain when I am finished. Silver recovery is a good idea, but again it depends on the amount of chemicals that you are using.

-- Thomas (willat2@msn.com), April 29, 2000.

Erin, Normally there is no problem with disposing of photo chemicals into the local water-treatment system. It also won't hurt your plumbing. Go to the Kodak web site and download publication J-300 (an Adobe Acrobat Reader file in .pdf format). It addresses your concerns. Regards, ;^D)

-- Doremus Scudder (ScudderLandreth@compuserve.com), April 30, 2000.

As long as you dilute the chemistry and flush after dumping with water, there is no trouble with typical photo chemistry. You should use some form of silver recovery to avoid putting the silver in the waste stream.

Porter's (www.porters.com) carries an electrolytic silver recovery setup for about $35 called the "Silver Magnet." This allows recovery of the silver and the company will pay you for the silver.

For cheaper, just throw steel wool into the fixer. Let stand (agitation will help) and discard the liquid. Dry the resulting material and dispose of properly.

The reason for dilution and flushing is to make sure that no corrosive materials end up standing in your system. In most cases there is no problem. But some systems could be damaged by the pH of some photo chemistry over time.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), May 01, 2000.

Both heavily used fixer and colour bleach-fix can stain and damage chromed brass drain fittings over time. My suggestion for disposal is to buy a plastic funnel that will fit through the sink plug-hole. Pouring the chemicals through this will prevent them contacting the chrome-work. The usual water flush should prevent any damage to the pipes.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), May 02, 2000.

I recently took a course on hazardous waste disposal. It is recommended to use silver recovery for fixer or have someone cart it away. For developer and stop bath, they should be mixed together to neutralize the PH balance. Litmous paper should be used to check PH balance before you pour stuff down the drain. And, of course, dilute with water while discarding. Frank

-- frank Ward (frank@culturalvisions.com), May 02, 2000.