Chemicals harmful to septic?

MartinCrabtree · Mar 4, 2010

The landlord asked me about that very thing today.I don't have an answer for her.So are the chemicals bad for a septic system?I can't see why but I'd like to be able to give her an honest answer.

Thanks.

removed account4 · Mar 4, 2010

hi martin

spent fixer contains silver which tends to kill off the beneficial bacteria in a septic system.
it is best to ask the local authorities about how to dispose of your photochemical waste.

john

Alexander Ghaffari · Mar 5, 2010

I put everything into my septic tank, except used fixer and anything else containing heavy metals.

largeformat pat · Mar 5, 2010

With your fixer, Collect it and place steel wool in a bucket. The silver will adhere to the steel wool. The waste then should be a lot safer.
Pat

2F/2F · Mar 5, 2010

You should be fine dumping everything but fixer and toners.

I would mix spent developer with stop bath before dumping the stop, to counteract the acidity of the stop bath. A wee tip I picked up from the Kodak data sheet on the matter.

Your local government (city or county) will have a way for you to appropriately dispose of fixer, toners, and other chemicals. You can take in all your other hazardous waste at the same time, such as batteries, oily rags, automotive fluids, electronic waste (which should never be sent directly to a landfill by placing it in the trash), empty spray paint bottles and paint cans, old paint and construction chemicals that you don't want, household cleaning products, etc.

It can't do any harm to take everything in to the waste disposal facility either, even though it is perfectly fine to dump developer and stop bath (and unused fixer) down the drain.

monodave · Mar 5, 2010

Here is a link to info on the Ilford Photo web site for waste disposal, including septic tanks.
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/healthandsafety/page.asp?n=163#Waste and Disposal

Monophoto · Mar 5, 2010

This subject has been discussed frequently.

Ultimately, the answer is 'maybe'.

Whether there is a concern depends on at least three factors:
- exactly which chemicals are being disposed of. Some chemicals are far less of a concern than others. In general, the chemicals that are used in ordinary black and white work are fairly harmless. Some toners may be a concern. Used fixer may be a concern.
- what fraction of the effluent going into the septic system is harmful. Putting small amounts of darkroom chemicals, even the less friendly chemicals such as used fixer, is harmless. In general, I would be concerned if you are running a commercial darkroom, but if you darkroom use is limited to one or two printing sessions a month, I don't think there would be a problem.
- there are two potential problems - disruption of the chemical process in the septic system, and contamination of the water leaving the septic system. There are obvious signs of the first problem, but you may never know about the second.

Our former home had a septic system, and I disposed of darkroom chemicals in that system for 25 years without any apparent problem.

bdial · Mar 5, 2010

The silver sludge produced by the steel wool method doesn't make the fix easier to deal with, I've started using a silver magnet which removes the silver by electrolysis. I take what's left to the community hazardous waste collector. Dev and stop goes down the drain.

Mike Wilde · Mar 5, 2010

With developers it's not just the pH that is the challenge, for septic, but also it's oxygen scavenging - developers are basically selective oxidizers. On septic I toss developers in a pail with a fish tank bubbler stone linked to a fish tank air pump for a half a day or overnight. The aeraition toatally oxidized the develper - no longer a high BOD entity, it can be pH balanced with spent stop, then water rinsed down the drain.

rtuttle · Mar 5, 2010

Use the Silver Magnet (or similar device) and then use the steel wool. This is a similar method that the graphic arts industry has been using for years to get fixer affluent under 5 parts per million federal mandate. Using just steel wool probably wont do it and vice versa too. But using both you should be good to go.

Kirk Keyes · Mar 5, 2010

Mike Wilde said:
With developers it's not just the pH that is the challenge, for septic, but also it's oxygen scavenging - developers are basically selective oxidizers. On septic I toss developers in a pail with a fish tank bubbler stone linked to a fish tank air pump for a half a day or overnight. The aeraition toatally oxidized the develper - no longer a high BOD entity, it can be pH balanced with spent stop, then water rinsed down the drain.

There's really no need for this with a septic tank - or with the sewer. Your septic tank is designed to operate under anerobic conditions. And the sewer treatment plant can handle it as well.

Afterall - do your aerate poop in your toilet bowl overnight before you flush? I didn't think so... And you don't need to anyway.

fotch · Mar 5, 2010

Monophoto said:
.....
Our former home had a septic system, and I disposed of darkroom chemicals in that system for 25 years without any apparent problem.

That is what I did for 20 years and when I sold the home, the septic was inspected and passed. Of course, as pointed out, what goes out of the tank goes eventually goes to the aquifer so its not the thing to do.

I experimented last summer with some plain water in a small black plastic tank with a screen on top thinking the evaporation was the answer, but didn't work well at all so back to the drawing board.

Steel wool then store, haul and dump at the closes hazardous waste dump, which is open twice a year, is my current plan. Or maybe, electromagnet and steel wool, then test for silver and into the septic?

Ektagraphic · Mar 5, 2010

Fixer is the only thing that is the issue. Check around with local photo labs to see if any will take it.

fotch · Mar 5, 2010

The closes photo lab that I know of is 30 miles (45minutes) away and is a small local camera store. I occasionally buy something from them but only have a small small display of chemical/analog products. I had asked them if they could get me C41 chemicals or if they would allow me to buy what goes into their machine and I suddenly felt like I was on another planet trying to communicate with aliens.

I can imagine the warm response I would get if I asked them if I could dump my fixer there.

Good idea, just not in my case.

If getting the silver out then allows the dumping in the septic, I would be happy.

CBG · Mar 5, 2010

Of the items in the rudimentary develop / stop / fix / wash aid / wash cycle for BW processing, used fixer is the only basic solution you will need to treat. Once you get the silver out it's fine to dispose of. All the others are fine as is.

If you get into color processing, you need specific info on the chemicals you are using. Ditto for BW toning, reduction, intensification, bleaching... If unsure, check it out in detail.

With more than ordinary care, the useful life of selenium toner can be extended to be almost indefinite and disposal becomes a moot issue.

With hypo alum toning, the toner gets better with usage, so it too is not a disposal issue.

MartinCrabtree · Mar 5, 2010

For now we're only looking at developing B&W negatives.No printing at this time.I'll take care of the fixer and look into the landfill chemical day for the rest.Thanks so much for all the advice.Haven't done this in 30+ years so we'll be taking our time.Thanks again.

Ektagraphic · Mar 5, 2010

I'll try to call it up but one of the guys here is a person working for the silver magnet.

Ektagraphic · Mar 5, 2010

Check this out.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Chemicals harmful to septic?

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