Water pollution with B&W chemicals ?

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Hello,

I was told B&W developers, fixers and other chemistry can cause serious environmental impact, once we're used to simply discard them through the sink, and so causing water pollution.

Question #1. Is that true ? Question #2. Has anyone developed a workaround for this problem ?

Thank you.

Alexandre Lima. Sao Paulo - Brazil

-- Alexandre Lima (alexandre.lima@eds.com), February 22, 1999

Answers

1. Yes, sort of

2. Depends

As I understand it, Developer is an organic chemical which can/will break down naturally. Whether you want that to happen in your water supply, I don't know. Stop is usually aectic acid, i.e. vinegar, which is by the way what I use for my paper, diluted to a 1% solution. For film I use water.

FIX is the big meany as it has silver in solution and you don't want to add metals to any water supply. As a result, in the U.S the common practice is to de-silver or silver reclaim. This involves buying the appropriate piece of equipment which may be too much for your budget or for the amount of fix you use/discard per year. Calumet, a large photo catalog company in the U.S. has started selling a silver recalamtion unit that is based on/in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. You can get their catalog at 1-800-CALUMET. Another option, the one I use, is to save the fixer until I get around 5 gallons together and then take it to the local University where there is a B&W photo program. They have a silver recovery unit there and in essence I am making a small, very very small, very very very small, donation to their program in the form of silver. This seems to keep the prof. on good terms with me, but maybe it's my natural charm. You could also try contacting the local phot lab and see if they'll take your fix. However, they may not be as conscientious as you in it's disposal.

For a while there was a company called ZONAL PRO, I believe that marketed environmentally friendly film processing chemicals. I do not have any contact information for them, you might try browsing the web or contact the local photo supply store. Kodaks Extol is a film developer that is suppossed to be comprable to D-76 and it is based on Vitamin-C I believe, and as such is very bio- degradable. Agfa Neutol Plus is, according to one source an environmentally friendly paper developer.

Sorry for the incompleteness of this answer, I hope it is of some use.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), February 23, 1999.


O.K. I found this in the May/June '92 issue of View Camera, Zonal Pro distributed by GMI Photographic, 1776 New highway P.O. Drawer U Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735 Tel: 516 752-0066 & Fax at 516 752- 0053

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), February 23, 1999.

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