So does anybody do anything creative or otherwise with their 120 spools? Are they recyclable? I have bags and boxes of them, they seem too nice to just toss.
120 Spools
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I really try to collect the metal and even the wooden ones.
I save all the 120 spools and backing paper, in case I need to hand roll film from 70mm cine film long rolls. So far I don't have to, since I use A70 cassettes.
Plastic spools used for all modern 120/220 films are recyclable.
According to what I have learned about Northern California recycling in the last two years, only metals are recyclable. They used to send everything else to China, and since they stopped taking our trash it all goes to landfills now. I have no idea if this is also true for other US states or countries.
Yeah, plastic soda bottles get made into carpeting. Very little use for other plastics. In Japan there's a term "thermal recycling" where some plastics are burned. PET is very useful for recycling.
Issue is everything has 3rd party certification, which requires traceability of all scrap, regrind and sources of resin.
Not every finished product requires this diligence, but mostly it's not worth taking a chance
Issue is everything has 3rd party certification, which requires traceability of all scrap, regrind and sources of resin.
Not every finished product requires this diligence, but mostly it's not worth taking a chance
I scrounge and save the Fujifilm spools. The EZ load feature works great with other brands, I punch a hole in the paper of Kodak and Ilford films then they attach nicely to the Fujifilm spool. Mostly I like playing around.
Could make a good prop
There are two aspects to this that are worth mentioning:
1: Solid waste management practices vary wildly across the globe. What is unthinkable in one state or even municipality is completely normal in another. For instance, in Europe, around 35% of the collected plastic waste is being recycled. In The Netherlands, this is around 45%, and about 30% of the collected plastic ends up as feedstock that replaces virgin plastics. So the statement 'very little use' is doubtful, also because...
2: ...technology progresses. Plastic recycling is challenging for a variety of reasons, but technological innovation does enable big strides to be made in e.g. separation technology. This makes any statement about the usefulness of collected plastics and the feasibility of recycling a moving target. What's junk and can only be incinerated today, will be a viable resource tomorrow.
Things change. Sometimes even for the better.
I've given a bunch to local daycares and kindergarten teachers. They glue the spools to sponge shapes so little hands have something to grip when sponge painting in art class.
Andrew O'Neill
Moderator
Mine are recycled. Never tossed in the waste bin.
In southern California, and, as best I can determine from national news reports, in most of the U.S., irrespective of local collection/sorting practices, only two plastics (PETE marked "1" and HDPE marked "2") are actually recycled. The rest are buried in landfills. This situation developed several years ago when Asia, which had been accepting/purchasing all the other plastics, stopped doing so. I don't know what plastic 120 spools are made of; they're not marked. I do toss them in the recycle bin, but expect they end up entombed with other non-recyclable trash.
Note that almost anything can be recycled; the decision on how plastics are dispositioned is for the most part an economic one. PETE and HDPE return more cash to the recycling infrastructure than it costs to recycle them. Other plastics, at this time, don't.
Yes we used to have a great kid's programme on the BBC called Blue Peter where the presenters could make all sorts of amazing items with such things as Kellogg's packets, plastic liquid washing-up containers etc The programme was amongst the first to turn its attention to getting kids to collect their aluminium drink cans for recycling in early 60s
In fact so ingenious were they that NASA only just beat them to landing men in the Moon in 1969
pentaxuser
If you dont want to throw 'em out, I'm sure somebody here will take em off your hands to use in their medium format camera(s).
I filled a bag of plastic 35mm cans and 120 film spools and sent it all to recycling. Thank you for the suggestion. I still have not figured out why I would need more than one 120 fill spools. On the other hand, the 35mm cans are useful for holding change and small parts or objects.
Here they're not keen on plastic unless its a bottle. I think most spools are still polystyrene, sometimes numbered #6; your local recycling will or won't accept that.
In Southern California there is no discrimination on the color of plastic or glass.
This is pretty standard. Soda bottles are made from PET, ie polyester, because of the extremely high standards for food and beverage containers this type of clean waste can be re-extruded into pellets that can be used to make carpets and cloth.
Most styrene, ABS, HIPS, PVC, EPS simply gets sent to landfills. Same is true for polyurethane foam insulation.
Foam insulation made in the past, even still today, contains chlorine and fluorine, this makes incineration very difficult due to the fluorine and chlorine corrodeing the incinerator.
Plastic is very difficult to recycle.
Couldnt Kodak accept these back, and reuse them for their intended purpose? Surely they could be reused. It might even save Kodak from having to produce new reels. Years ago they stopped accept 35mm cannisters, for whatever reason.
I use these spools to make supports for the objects for tabletop photography.
I cut them at the needed lengt or even glue two to make a longer one, or combine a few for any particular need.
So these spools are getting a second life in photography...
I once cut one to the right size to replace a lost stop for the door of my car, till I got an original from VW, just to prevent water getting in the coach frame.
These little things are very handy for DIY!
What is interesting is that the ones from Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Agfa, Adox, etc are of somewhat different shape, so there is always a right one for a particular need...
And they are stronger than they look.
NEVER EVER THROW AWAY A 120 FILM SPOOL!!!
I cut them at the needed lengt or even glue two to make a longer one, or combine a few for any particular need.
So these spools are getting a second life in photography...
I once cut one to the right size to replace a lost stop for the door of my car, till I got an original from VW, just to prevent water getting in the coach frame.
These little things are very handy for DIY!
What is interesting is that the ones from Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Agfa, Adox, etc are of somewhat different shape, so there is always a right one for a particular need...
And they are stronger than they look.
NEVER EVER THROW AWAY A 120 FILM SPOOL!!!
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