Sydney used chemistry disposal

[hartacus]

Hey all,
Starting to develop B&W film at home in inner west Sydney, and looking for somewhere to dispose of used chemistry (Foma dev & fix, coz apparently the hydroquinone in dev is harmful to acquatic life). Does anyone have up-to-date advice on who'd take it?

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Hmmm. Could always arrange to drop it off at PM Turnbull's dig; could come in handy cleaning up his Cabinet...

 

[Down Under]

Contact your municipal council for advice. Some provide this service (at extra cost) to those wanting to dispose of "sensitive" chemistry.

Since moving to Tasmania five years ago I now dispose of my used liquid photo chemistry by taking it to our garbage disposal site. They have a small facility to handle the stuff and they very kindly take it off my hands for a nominal payment. I save up old solutions in empty supermarket water bottles and take it over bulk lot, every month.

Some years ago in Melbourne I disposed of a small stash of no-longer-needed photo dry chemistry (mostly for sepia toning, so icky stuff indeed) via my local pharmacy. They kindly took the lot for disposal but told me if I had any more, they would be charging me a $50 fee for "special handling". Fortunately for me, that was the entire lot, I no longer do sepia toning so I no longer need smelly sodium sulfate.

The service isn't free and may not even be particularly cheap, but obviously you are keen to sleep guilt-free at night knowing you have done the right thing. Good on you!

 

[samcomet]

Hey all,
Starting to develop B&W film at home in inner west Sydney, and looking for somewhere to dispose of used chemistry (Foma dev & fix, coz apparently the hydroquinone in dev is harmful to acquatic life). Does anyone have up-to-date advice on who'd take it?

I take mine to the Inner West Council's waste chemical cleanup. The dates etc. are on their website. I usually go to their Canada Bay Depot for my disposal as I live not too far from there, but I do know that there are other places at other times listed.......Note that I think that there is a 5 litre or maybe 10 litre max for any one container due to WorkCover issues with the staff carrying such weights. I've never had any issues when I tell the workers that my chemicals come from my darkroom - except to have to explain to the young ones who work there, just what a darkroom does in this digital age!

Best of luck and good to read of yet another analog person with good ecological intentions!
cheers,
Sam

 

[Maris]

Hey all,
Starting to develop B&W film at home in inner west Sydney, and looking for somewhere to dispose of used chemistry (Foma dev & fix, coz apparently the hydroquinone in dev is harmful to acquatic life). Does anyone have up-to-date advice on who'd take it?

If you are connected to a reticulated sewage system that goes to a conventional treatment works you may send all your film processing waste down the drain. The quantities, even for a busy home darkroom, are below any conceivable detection limit by the time your effluent is mixed with the other 100,000 households (none of which process film) that empty to the same sewerage farm. The ordinary activated sludge method of sewage treatment easily and completely neutralises all b&w photographic processing solutions. The final "polished" water that is released to the environment carries no remotely imaginable photographic harm in it.

The above does not apply if you are running a major industrial scale operation like Kodak in its heyday or processing millions of feet of movie film. The legal and chemical anxieties about photo processing emanate from such industrial scale operations. As an environmental scientist (now gladly retired) that worked with several municipal sewage treatment plants I'll confirm that every day would bring new problems but none of them had anything to do with developer and fixer down the drain. You don't want to hear the stories about what happens down at the skunk-works.

 

[hartacus]

Thanks for your ideas all. I'm familiar with the Inner West chemical drop-off days, so that's an option.

If you are connected to a reticulated sewage system that goes to a conventional treatment works you may send all your film processing waste down the drain. The quantities, even for a busy home darkroom, are below any conceivable detection limit by the time your effluent is mixed with the other 100,000 households (none of which process film) that empty to the same sewerage farm. The ordinary activated sludge method of sewage treatment easily and completely neutralises all b&w photographic processing solutions. The final "polished" water that is released to the environment carries no remotely imaginable photographic harm in it.

Maris, I'd be interested to read any documentation on how sewage treatment breaks down small amounts of photographic chemicals (beyond dilution).

 

[Maris]

Thanks for your ideas all. I'm familiar with the Inner West chemical drop-off days, so that's an option.
Maris, I'd be interested to read any documentation on how sewage treatment breaks down small amounts of photographic chemicals (beyond dilution).

No need to take a degree in chemistry or to learn how to search the enormous volume of literature:
Silver goes to silver sulphide - geologically stable and harmless.
Thiosulphate goes to sulphate and water...harmless
Hydroquinone goes to succinate, acetate, and carbon dioxide...harmless.

Don't underestimate the colossal dilution factor. If, in a community of 100,000 households that has average water usage, you make 20 8x10 gelatin-silver prints a week your contribution of silver to the general flow is about 35grams per petalitre. This is so close to zero that no chemical or biological analysis, maybe not even neutron activation, can detect it. To put things into context the natural silver content of ordinary foods varies from 10 to 100 micrograms per kilogram. Those 100,000 households excrete monumentally more silver into the system than one ordinary home darkroom.