Best disposal method

Hi,

I just posted a similar question in the B&W section but also do color. I just talked with my local hazardous waste facility and they said they will take 30 gallons a day. My question is, is it best to keep developer and BLIX separate or just mix them? My understanding has always been when mixed, you get the most neutral PH ( better for the transport part from the hazard station ). They do not do any silver recovery, it all gets incinerated. My plan was just to take 5 gallon pails of C41 soup and E6 soup. Are there any other reasons not to do this?

Thanks

Joel

This is a doubled thread.

See for b&w chemicals here:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Where do you live Joel? I just took 5 gallons of fix to my local photo lab and they poured it into their desilvering machine. Problem solved. Even moderate sized cities should have a lab or two. They will also take blix. Recovering the silver is much preferable to "incineration".

I would not mix them because the lab may not take it then. If you don't live on a sewer call your local sewage treatment plant and ask if they will accept the developer. Or if its legal take it to a friend's place and flush the developer (not the blix). I have taken chemicals directly to the small wastewater plant near where I live, and there was no charge.

I'm new to C-41 and RA4 so I'm not familiar with the developer ingredients yet, but with small quantities of B&W developer I will dump it in my septic. But only small quantities, a few liters per month.

The waste disposal place does not do silver recovery, it all gets incinerated which is the only reason I would just dump each step for a particular process together. So my question is strictly a matter of which is safer to handle and clean up in case of a spill. How caustic the mix is seems to be the bigger concern. For convenience, it would be easier for me just to dump a C41 soup or E-6 soup. If there was a safety concern, I have no issue keeping the developer separate from the blix. I did try some of the local labs, none would take spent fixer/bilx.

I use the same pumping service the local city/county uses. No limit at my volume. Thinking of going up to an IBC from drums.

Have you checked with all the labs in your city that process color film/print materials? It's hard to imagine why they'd turn down reasonable quantities of spent fix since its money in their pocket. If you think of all the resources that go into bringing silver up out of the ground, transporting it and processing it into products and transporting it once again, it really makes sense to recover as much as possible. Just incinerating it is really a waste.

Wayne said:

I just took 5 gallons of fix to my local photo lab and they poured it into their desilvering machine. Problem solved.

Click to expand...

I guess many of us have the problem that there is no local photo lab around.
Here in the nextby city (of about 250,000) there is no lab left. Only one minilab-machine in a photo shop.

If there is no photo lab around to recover the silver, then that responsibility would seem to fall on the user. There are effective and inexpensive ways to do it. It may be a hassle, but it's the right thing to do and for those who need justification other than environmental reasons, it pays for itself (and then some) in the long run.