Disposing of chemicals away from a septic system

[Drew B.]

here on Cape Cod, which is such a fragile spit of land, most people who have darkrooms, have a service pick up containers of spent chemicals from their homes/shops and take it "off" cape and dispose of it. this usually happens once a month.

 

[firecracker]

Now, besides developer and fix, what do I do with used Hypo-Clear? How toxic is it? Usually the literature is on the developer and the fix, but not anything else.

I use very small amount of Hypo-Clear, so I usually dump it with a lot of water when I wash my FB prints. But I'm assuming it's not good.

Selenium and other toners make me concern, also. Any advice?

 

[Louis Nargi]

Bruce Barnbaum has a way of doing this.

Something like the stop goes into the developer to neutralize it (don't quote me on it).

Contact him at www.barnbaum.com

Your right he mixes them together and they neutralize and throws them out on the lawn. They also won't hurt the septic, might even help it as long as its B&W.

 

[jp80874]

Originally Posted by david b Bruce Barnbaum has a way of doing this.
Something like the stop goes into the developer to neutralize it (don't quote me on it). Contact him at www.barnbaum.com

Your right he mixes them together and they neutralize and throws them out on the lawn. They also won't hurt the septic, might even help it as long as its B&W.

That of course is what happens when you dump the trays together in the sink. I pour off the fixer into a jug for storage if it is still good. If the fixer is spent I pour it off into gallon jugs to take to school to put through their silver processor and city drains. Then I pour the other trays (large enough for 16x20 prints) into the 8’ x 30” sink with the water running. I wash out each tray with water. From the sink it goes across the basement through 1.5" PVC pipe into the sump. When the sump fills (about 3 gallons) it pumps out into the septic. Everything is very diluted and mixed by the time it gets to the septic, which after all is a large tank for further mixing. The stream down hill from our leaching field is carefully checked by the EPA so I don't think we are creating a hazard. They would know which property was creating a problem and come knocking on the door. It has happened in this community, but not at our door.

John Powers

 

[Flotsam]

Wouldn't there be more silver in those prints than in that spent fix? And if so, should we take those reject prints to the haz-mat facility?

It would seem so. And this receives much less discussion than chemistry disposal.

 

[brimc76]

Dan, I have been in a house with a well and septic system for the last 12 years and had the same concern when I moved out here from the city. I mix any developer with a bit of stop to neutralize it and put that down the drain. The fix I put into empy bleach containers and take to our local garbage transfer station. I am in Ontario also and most of the centres have hazardous waste collection and as long as you tell them you are not running a commercial lab and bring in a few containers at a time (they can't just be clear plastic jugs either) they are more than happy to take them. I usually take a couple over when I have other larger items to get rid of as they have been charging lately to enter the site.

 

[esanford]

Ok... I guess I am the stupid person. I built a home in the country with a septic system. I have been dumping my chemicals down the drain? What problem am I causing. By the way, I have county water....

 

[removed account4]

Ok... I guess I am the stupid person. I built a home in the country with a septic system. I have been dumping my chemicals down the drain? What problem am I causing. By the way, I have county water....

depending on where you live, the silver in the spent fixer might be considered a heavy metal and therefore may be against the law to dispose of the way you are doing. i have heard for a long time that the silver also may strip your septic tank of the bacteria that keep it working, (dish soap and laundry detergent do similar things ) ... it has been a hot topic here, with some suggesting to just dump it on your lawn as fertalizer because it is virtually harmless, and a foolish law to begin with, and others (myself included) who have someone take all their chemical-waste away in a drum (whether it is a profit-maker or not because of local laws and "photographer's guilt" ) ...

-john

 

[Ian Grant]

As someone who worked in precious metal recovery, until Jan 05, and was heavily involved with photo-chemistry disposal, I had to be fully aware of EU legislation on disposal of photo chemistry, EU legislation mirrors US legislation quite accurately.

As long as the silver is removed from the Fix or Blix then with permission chemicals can be diluted and diluted and disposed of via the foul / waste drain. They should be neutralised first and mixing desilvered fix with dev, bleac etc is a good way.

Water boards are really only interested in the load at sewage treatment plants. It's important to realise the potential load even with non de-silvered fix or blix from an normal home darkroom is miniscule, and undetectible at the works.

Septic tanks could be affected if the volume/quantity of dissolved silver in solution was excessive, but average home darkroom use is unlikely to get anywhere near that threshold.

What must be rembered is that in commercial disposal, after de-silvering, dev, fix, blix etc is mixed - the pH balanced then diluted to drain.

If you want a quick, cheap, eco friendly, way to recover your silver stick some wire wool in the spent solution. Save it up for your old age then send it for smelting

Ian

 

[matti]

It sounds expensive for some of you. Here in Sweden I could either leve the chemicals for disposal at the city dump for free or I could call them and they collect it for free.

/matti

 

[esanford]

After reading these posts I found this "white paper", which is pretty good on the subject. It appears that releasing small amounts of photographic waste is not that dangerous... I will do further research with the contractor that installed my septic system. Here is the website for the white paper:

http://www.uic.edu/spha/glakes/harts/HARTS_library/photohazards.txt