Question about old chemical components...

Cleaning out some items from my storage , I found I still have several chemical component that I used to use to mix my own developers. My question is, are they still useable? I think some of them are up to 20 years old. Here is the list:

Metol
Catechol
Sodium Carbonate
Sodium Sulphite
Potassium Bromide
Potassium Alum Sulfate
Sodium Bisulfite
Hydroquinone
Sodium Hydroxide
Borax
Sodium Thiosulfate

If they aren't useable, how should I dispose of them? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

Depends entirely on the storage.

The Sodium (Meta)bisulphite will be fairly useless, the Pyrocatechin (Catechol) will most likely have oxidised too far, the rest may well be OK if they've been stored reasonably. I've got Metol & Hyroquine at least 40 years old that's still as good as new.

Ian

hitcher said:

Cleaning out some items from my storage , I found I still have several chemical component that I used to use to mix my own developers. My question is, are they still useable? I think some of them are up to 20 years old. Here is the list:

Metol
Catechol
Sodium Carbonate
Sodium Sulphite
Potassium Bromide
Potassium Alum Sulfate
Sodium Bisulfite
Hydroquinone
Sodium Hydroxide
Borax
Sodium Thiosulfate

If they aren't useable, how should I dispose of them? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

Click to expand...

With any chemical, it depends entirely on storage, if they are powders then, have they caked together (would indicate water exposure), if they can oxidize then have they been stored on an air impermeable container that is filled to the cap, and is the cap made to be air impermeable or were they gassed off? If your not sure, then I would toss them, none of them are expensive enough to be worth going through the time and energy of mixing them up and then wasting film or paper to see if they work, then trying to figure out which one is dead.

As for disposal, contact your city/town and ask about household hazardous waste disposal. This is either collected at a special collection point or on a special collection day, or at a specific place on a specific day. If your not sure, with chemicals always consider them hazardous, I'd rather consider it hazardous when it isn't then to think it's okay and find out later it wasn't.

Thanks for the advice , I think I will be getting rid of them then.

There may be another APUGer in your area who would be interested in experimenting with them.

Why don't you offer them for free pickup in the "Free Stuff" thread.

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

Excellent Idea , I will post in the free stuff forum, thanks matt