Re: Disposing of chemicals

Someone was wondering about disposal of chemicals, a
subject that has often bothered me. I did a little
research by calling photo suppliers and local poison
control people. There was surprisingly little
information, but the consensus seems to be that most
developers and stop baths are fairly benign and can be
disposed of down the drain if well diluted (leave the
water running).

Spent fixer contains silver and therefore should not
be disposed of this way. I keep a big plastic jug and
store the stuff until the next toxics drive. Here in
the US these drives are fairly common. When I lived in
Japan there was no way to do this, so I had to just
dump it, which always made me feel terribly guilty.
Photoflo and other wetting agents are esentially mild
detergents. These are OK. Selenium and many other
toners are highly toxic and should not be dumped.

There was some talk about alternative stop baths
recently on the list. I guess things like citric acid
and ascorbic acid would be even safer, as they are
edibles.

I am talking about B&W chemicals. Color processing
chemicals are entirely different, of course.

If anyone knows more about this, please let us know. I
don't want to pass on misinformation, so speak up
especially if I am wrong about any of this.

Colin

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Received on Sun Feb 3 13:23:26 2002