Disposal of darkroom fixer in the Boston, MA area?

Hi:

For a living I am an “Environmental Professional” in Minnesota. Most large cities offer Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) drop-off at no charge. Boston has such a collection and their flyer indicates they take photo chemicals. Here is the link: Dead Link Removed.

It requires you to be a city resident. If you are not, get a friend to who lives in the city to drop it off for you. Otherwise check with your city of county environmental office to see if a HHW drop-off event or facility is available for your use (applies US wide in larger populated areas).

To brave the waters, under Federal Regulation (US) hazardous wastes are regulated by RCRA, Resource Conservation Recovery Act, Subtitle C. It pretty much makes most hazardous waste from a commercial activity a regulated item and it also makes most household hazardous waste exempt (unless its from a home business) from Federal (US) regulation. Special Wastes are certain hazardous materials that are managed by recycling. Such a material would be fixer that has gone through silver recovery. In most areas, you then sell the silver and sewer the fixer. The metal (silver) makes it hazardous.

Many states and cities regulate what is discharged to the sewer system. Usually, they regulate commercial sources and exempt households. Please check with you local city sewer authority if you are concerned. Most states also define a regulatory concentration of 5 or greater ppm of silver in the waste before its hazardous waste.

I hope that this info helps.

George

Ian Grant said:

There is plenty of evidence that dissolved silver has an impact on the environment, and it certainly has a detrimental effects at water treatment plants.

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Dear Ian,

Could you possibly post links to some of this evidence, or provide citations? I am perfectly willing to change my mind if I see any evidence that disposal of small amounts of used photo-chemicals are genuinely harmful to a waste-water plant, but I have yet to see any.

Cheers,

Roger

Hi:

Kodak has a lot of information on photo chemical disposal. You may note that most photo chemicals including fixer are readily treated by modern waste water treatment plants. Generally the issue boils down to silver waste.

Here is a general photo chemical disposal link: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=6190&pq-locale=en_US


Here is a link for commercial discharge under Federal (US) law: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/documents/f5/0900688a800f61f5/CIS131ENG.pdf

In reading you may note it’s a notification requirement and does not prohibit discharge of silver to a sewer system. There is also an exemption for discharge of less then of about 4 gallons a month to a sewer system. There is a reason for the exemption, by the time the silver from 4 gallons of fixer reaches the waste water treatment plant it’s so dilute it’s probably below laboratory detection limits. Its also so dilute that it will not have a significant effect on waste water treatment processes.

In the US there are generally disposal options and exemptions for home quantity chemical users. Please refer to my previous post pertaining to household hazardous waste.

George

SuzanneR said:

I've been using the occasional hazardous waste day...

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Hi Suzanne,

I also leave photo waste chemicals out on that day - once a year - it's free! (or something my taxes pay for).

In this case I reduce the quantity by evaporation. Now we can discuss air pollution.
HA!!

Regards,

Paul

gminerich said:

Here is a general photo chemical disposal link: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=6190&pq-locale=en_US

Here is a link for commercial discharge under Federal (US) law: http://www.kodak.com/eknec/documents/f5/0900688a800f61f5/CIS131ENG.pdf

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Thank you for the site information, gminerich. I've accessed this information before, and will continue to re-study it in the future.

In the end the most important information FOR ME would be:

1. How much silver, in what form and at what toxicity level*, will the processing of ONE roll of Black and White, or Color Negative film introduce into the environment; sewer or wherever...

2. The same, but applicable to one 8" x 10" print, Black and White or color.

I'll note a couple of interesting bits of information:

*Silver thiosulfates are 1000 times less toxic than silver nitrates. Should this be our major concern in "spent fixer"?

Silver from the washing of "kitchen utensils" is mentioned a significant source of the silver content in wastewater. I would assume (and I do not like to "assume") that applies to silver knives, forks and spoons. "Protect the environment - only use ..." What? ... plastic? Stainless steel contains chromium and nickel...

In one area, silver entering sewerage processing plants is suggested to be a "good thing", adding to silver based methods in destroying bacteria.

Spent fixer is generally NOT considered to be "toxic waste" until the the silver content reaches 5 parts per million. I suppose we could use test strips to measure the silver content in saved spent fixer and dump it on our petunias when it reaches 4 parts per million - and we could regulate the content by adding tap water. However, this does NOT sound like a good idea to me!

BTW - I am still "calculating". How do I convert "parts per million" to "grams per liter?"

It seems to me that the issue boils down to 3 questions:

Is it legal to dump down the drain? Where I live yes.

Is is ethical to dump down the drain? No, for me it is better to error on the side of caution.

Is it doable to re-cycle my spent fixer? At the moment my color lab will take my used fixer, but if the owner changes his mind will I drive 40 miles, or store a couple of gallons of used fixed waiting for the one day a year my city collects toxic or otherwise unsavory wast? The answer is no, not if it is legal to dump it down the drain.

Since you live in cambridge, Ma. you might go over to New England photography school and ask how they handle it:

The whole argument about what amount of hazardous waste is harmful is circular.

Like any harmful substance, there will never be a full agreement on what amount is not harmful - it's a grey issue in the case of silver - it's about what is legally acceptable and what our personal view is. The lines will always be redrawn based on scientific studies. We can't deny that when waste is processed - incinerated, boiled off (liquid reducing) or otherwise - byproducts are produced such as fertilizer with heavy metals from sewage and atmospheric pollutants that get by the scrubbers (incineration releases Dioxin,Mercury & Carbon Dioxide into the air). And who knows what's leaching out of landfills (dumps)? Hazards are redistributed.

As a self proclaimed "Minimalist" I have the view that consuming less means less waste, and it extends to economics. It's my personal view and I don't preach the ideology to others, including my children. I'm one of their role models though.

On another note: The town I live in has the annual Household Hazardous Waste Day and out of the 7 categories listed as household waste was "photochemicals" (one word). I hope this means I'm not the only one in town still using the chemical process.

Regards,
Paul