Disposal of used selenium toner

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I'm thinking of toning my prints with selenium again. When the toner is exhausted, is the residual selenium left is low enough to dump down the drain?

 

[JBrunner]

Follow all applicable federal state and local environmental laws, ordinances, regulations, and paperwork concerning proper disposal of noxious chemical substances, or dilute it and feed it to your tomato garden.

 

[CBG]

Using selenium in roughly the way indicated here - http://www.heylloyd.com/technicl/seuse.htm - maybe half the way down the page - can keep selenium toner going almost forever. The key is to make sure the print is acid free before it goes into the toner. And that you don't mix sodium sulfite / wash aid into the toner even though AA said you could.

I do use acid stop and fix, but I wash the print and then hold the print in fresh sulfite to make the paper alkaline before it goes into selenium. Do that faithfully and the toner will stay cleaner and work longer. It seems to work almost forever, and when it loses strength, add some more concentrate and keep it going. Filter it if it does darken. There's practically no reason to discard selenium.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Follow all applicable federal state and local environmental laws, ordinances, regulations, and paperwork concerning proper disposal of noxious chemical substances ...

Agreed, after deleting the tomato garden bit.

 

[2F/2F]

This is the wrong place to ask this question. Every one of these threads gets out of hand, and no real definitive information results. You will get the entire spectrum of answers from put it in your kids' baby bottle to lock down the block and call in the haz mat team, with not one of the answers coming from a true authority on the subject, but plenty of people speaking as if they are. The bottom line is to simply contact your local government and ask them.

With any chemical, you cannot go wrong by simply taking it to a hazardous waste disposal facility. If it is safe to dump it down the drain, they will make the call and do it. If it is not, they will do the right thing with it. And you can take in all your batteries, electronic waste, paint and solvent cans, cleaning supplies, motor oil and filters, dirty rags, etc. at the same time.

But please don't take advice about what is OK to dump down the drain from people on the Internet.

 

[Brian Bilgere]

In my city, we have hazardous waste disposal days a few times per year. They take lots of things including darkroom chemistry.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

This is the wrong place to ask this question... You will get the entire spectrum of answers from put it in your kids' baby bottle to lock down the block and call in the haz mat team.

As a good faith exercise I usually put it in my kids' baby bottles, then take the babies to the hazardous waste disposal facility and let the haz mat teams dispose of them...



Ken

 

[Marco B]

This is the wrong place to ask this question. Every one of these threads gets out of hand, and no real definitive information results. You will get the entire spectrum of answers from put it in your kids' baby bottle to lock down the block and call in the haz mat team, with not one of the answers coming from a true authority on the subject, but plenty of people speaking as if they are. The bottom line is to simply contact your local government and ask them.
....
But please don't take advice about what is OK to dump down the drain from people on the Internet.

Sound remarks, but with that last sentence, it is probably time to call your internet provider and ask them to shut you down... I mean this in the sense of:

"What use is there of any internet forum and participating on them, if your bottom line is that no-ones advice can be trusted or be useful, nor that you believe that the participants asking the original questions, have any intelligence or common sense themselves for weeding out the nonsense from the good stuff...?"

From the Kodak document titled "Environmental Guidelines for Amateur Photographers":

"Used KODAK Rapid Selenium Toner is regulated as a hazardous waste under the USEPA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations for commercial users. We recommend that domestic users do not discharge this material to the sewer or discard it in the municipal trash. Use a household hazardous waste collection facility or a licensed hazardous waste hauler to manage this material."

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Hey thanks for the link! Very informative. I gave it up a while back because of the smell and the toxicity. Selenium toning adds a little something that I'm willing to explore again.

 

[ann]

put the old selenium in a tray and place some throw away prints in it and let it wear it's self out can take days, but sooner or later nothing much is left.

 

[2F/2F]

"What use is there of any internet forum and participating on them, if your bottom line is that no-ones advice can be trusted or be useful, nor that you believe that the participants asking the original questions, have any intelligence or common sense themselves for weeding out the nonsense from the good stuff...?" [/I]

My bottom line is not that at all. It is not what I wrote, and I don't think it is ok to be misparaphrased like that. My point was that when it comes to something as serious as hazardous waste disposal, don't get your information from an open photography message board. Contact the government. Research the law. Or just take the burden off of yourself and take chemicals to a proper disposal facility. There is no shame in saying "I don't know what to do, so I am going to pass the ball to someone who does." That "someone" is a waste facility, not the users of a hobbyist message board.

 

[Marco B]

My bottom line is not that at all. It is not what I wrote, and I don't think it is ok to be misparaphrased like that. My point was that when it comes to something as serious as hazardous waste disposal, don't get your information from an open photography message board. Contact the government. Research the law. Or just take the burden off of yourself and take chemicals to a proper disposal facility. There is no shame in saying "I don't know what to do, so I am going to pass the ball to someone who does."

First off, it was more a joke than serious, exemplified by the use of the smilies.

I don't think I misparaphrased you at all, after all, I made very clear this was my own interpretation of your words by stating "I mean this in the sense of:". Could I have been more clear? IDK...

Anyway, you did just that what I hoped you would do, and that is, make your own point more clear. And that is a good thing.

Lastly, as you may have noticed, I added some "informed" stuff from Kodak itself in my last post, including official, clear and literal quotes about "the law" (at least as seen from the limited US perspective in 1999 as reported by Kodak) and a full reference to the document the quote was taken from on Kodak's website, just what you are soundly suggesting

 

[2F/2F]

I know it was not malicious, Marco. But taking my comments on the usefulness of A.P.U.G. in one specific situation that is of an objective nature, and restating them as a general indictment of the utility of the entire Internet for any purpose is a really severe misparaphrase.

 

[pinhole_dreamer]

In my city, we have hazardous waste disposal days a few times per year. They take lots of things including darkroom chemistry.

In our city, they won't even take fluorescent light bulbs because of the hazmat issue. So far, I'm storing used chems in separate 5 gallon paint drums. (A guy from the office was kind enough to give me 8 of them -- and he even cleaned them out for me.)

I'll just ask one of the 'local' photographers about what he does with his used chems.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

This is the wrong place to ask this question. Every one of these threads gets out of hand, and no real definitive information results. You will get the entire spectrum of answers from put it in your kids' baby bottle to lock down the block and call in the haz mat team, with not one of the answers coming from a true authority on the subject, but plenty of people speaking as if they are. The bottom line is to simply contact your local government and ask them.

With any chemical, you cannot go wrong by simply taking it to a hazardous waste disposal facility. If it is safe to dump it down the drain, they will make the call and do it. If it is not, they will do the right thing with it. And you can take in all your batteries, electronic waste, paint and solvent cans, cleaning supplies, motor oil and filters, dirty rags, etc. at the same time.

But please don't take advice about what is OK to dump down the drain from people on the Internet.

Fully agree!

 

[Marco B]

I know it was not malicious, Marco. But taking my comments on the usefulness of A.P.U.G. in one specific situation that is of an objective nature, and restating them as a general indictment of the utility of the entire Internet for any purpose is a really severe misparaphrase.

I just hope you are able to acknowledge that your own original statement, with all best intentions of being objective, simply contained a sense of inherent irony that I personally felt others here on APUG might feel too, and hence I referenced. It was not an intention to misparaphrase you at all...

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I just want to do the right thing. I take my used fix to my work place. They then have a recycler that reclaim the silver from used fixer. Please tell me if I'm misinformed. Used film and print developer is safe to dump down the drain right?

 

[tomalophicon]

put the old selenium in a tray and place some throw away prints in it and let it wear it's self out can take days, but sooner or later nothing much is left.

How do you know there isn't much left? And then what do you do with these 'throw away prints' that have all the selenium in them?

 

[Louis Nargi]

You can also put the spent toner in a 5 gal bucket and let the water evaporate out then what is left is the metal.

 

[removed account4]

This is the wrong place to ask this question. Every one of these threads gets out of hand, and no real definitive information results. You will get the entire spectrum of answers from put it in your kids' baby bottle to lock down the block and call in the haz mat team, with not one of the answers coming from a true authority on the subject, but plenty of people speaking as if they are. The bottom line is to simply contact your local government and ask them.

With any chemical, you cannot go wrong by simply taking it to a hazardous waste disposal facility. If it is safe to dump it down the drain, they will make the call and do it. If it is not, they will do the right thing with it. And you can take in all your batteries, electronic waste, paint and solvent cans, cleaning supplies, motor oil and filters, dirty rags, etc. at the same time.

But please don't take advice about what is OK to dump down the drain from people on the Internet.

you can say THAT again!
john

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Considering the amount of selenium that goes down the drain everyday from the use of anti-dandruff shampoos that contain selenium sulfide this seems a silly point to dwell on.

 

[Ian Grant]

There's far more Selenium going down the toilets in a town naturally from people taking Selenium supplement tablets .

It depends who you talk to, the chief chemists involved with water treatment are realists and will tell you that the average waste from home darkrooms is something they really aren't interested in, there's far worse getting into the sewer from almost every household.

Often at a local level if you ask they give a blanket no you can't put down the drain, which isn't usually true. Precious metal recovery & waste disposal was part of my job for 20 years and I liaised with the relevant authorities, both for the 2 companies I worked for and our photo-lab customers.

Ian

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I might take my prints to have them toned here

There's far more Selenium going down the toilets in a town naturally from people taking Selenium supplement tablets .

It depends who you talk to, the chief chemists involved with water treatment are realists and will tell you that the average waste from home darkrooms is something they really aren't interested in, there's far worse getting into the sewer from almost every household.

Often at a local level if you ask they give a blanket no you can't put down the drain, which isn't usually true. Precious metal recovery & waste disposal was part of my job for 20 years and I liaised with the relevant authorities, both for the 2 companies I worked for and our photo-lab customers.

Ian

Here's a reservoir in California, the state where I live that is toxic with selenium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesterson_Reservoir

Another APUGer said it's in dandruff shampoo too :confused:

 

[Ian Grant]

Here's a reservoir in California, the state where I live that is toxic with selenium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesterson_Reservoir

Another APUGer said it's in dandruff shampoo too :confused:

That's the reason why disposal regulations are partially based on local conditions

I went straight to the most senior chemists/officials dealing with chemical disposal because there was almost always misinterpretation at a local level, but there was always a possibility that local conditions couldn't cope.

However spent Selenium toner's got very little Selenium left in it so it would take a few thousand heavy users to add to the issues at a toxic reservoir

Ian

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I just want to do the right thing. I take my used fix to my work place. They then have a recycler that reclaim the silver from used fixer. Please tell me if I'm misinformed. Used film and print developer is safe to dump down the drain right?

I take them to the hazardous waste collection place once a month as well. Others being worse offenders is never a good reason to be a 'minor' offender; it's just a bad excuse.