Waste Disposal Question

<p>To all photographers/minilab owners,<br>

I have recently purchased a minilab, a Fuji Frontier 500, that I keep in my home. I am yielding about 10 gallons of waste per month. I was trying to find the proper way to dispose of the waste without being harmful to the environment. I do have a silver collection unit and have filtered my waste as of now. I'm having trouble finding companies that I can drop it off at, or that will come to pick it up. When the machine was set up for me the technician said the substance was less harmful than household cleaners, but I might need to find a waste service. Is it safe to dump in the drain after the silver has been filtered? Please advise on proper steps. Thanks.</p>

<p>Down the drain into the city sewer should be just fine after the silver collection from the fixer.</p>

<p> </p>

<p> This subject is so vast; no one can give you advice in the space available. I know your problem and I will tell you a thing or two or three. First, disregard what the salesman said and what I say for that matter. As to the toxicity of your effluent. I can tell you with absolute certainty that the effluent is reasonably safe however safe is a relative term.</p>

<p>Most municipalities regulate silver. Silver is lumped in with other heavy metals like chrome and cadmium and lead. Most heavy metals are highly poisonous. All entities impose limits on silver discharge to the sewer. The federal limit is achieved with proper treatment available to you. The effluents are allowed to percolate thru a bucket containing iron wool. Other methods are also available. Electrolytic units will not meet the requirements thus the effluent must be secondarily treaded. A good system is properly installed and properly operating you can achieve the federal limit however, only if you are diligent. Many state, county, city, municipality regulation for silver cannot be achieved by any type of on-site treatment. This is because these entities often establish impossible effluent standards. </p>

<p>The toxicity of silver effluent is highly controversial as it always reacts to form an insoluble thus inert compound just a few feet down the sewer line. However true this is, you will not convince the federal, local and state authorities and you likely will be fined and maybe prosecuted, if you violate codes. You will only know what these codes are by asking the proper authorizes.</p>

<p>Silver is only one of several enemy chemicals. The municipal sewer system must chlorinate to kill harmful germs etc. This is the last step in the typical sewer treatment plant. Now the fix we use is the same stuff used by tropical fish hobbyist to remove chlorine from their fresh mixed aquarium water. Your effluent, when it gets to the sewer plant, interferes with this stage, which is chlorination. If they are not diligent they under chlorinate due to your fixer and then they release sewage loaded with harmful bacteria and viruses.</p>

<p>The bleach and bleach-fix and the developers decompose nicely in the sewer treatment plant. One stage in the plant is aeration. Oxygen in water breaks down lots of bad things people put down the drain. Often, this is a precarious step in the municipal treatment plant. In other words their capacity to aerate is likely just adequate. You and other sources of effluent that has a high oxygen demand can overwhelm the plant. Now they will be forced to release under aerated sewage. They have no capacity to hold or store the stuff. If they do, a fish kill or alge bloom is the result.</p>

<p>Sewage from the plant is always released, after treatment, into a creek or river or lake. If undertreated due to low chlorination or low aeration, the municipality will be fined thousands of dollars on a daily bases. Federal and state monitors are inspecting all municipal sewer system. If the they under treat they surely will be found out. They will be fined. Likey the plant operators or inspectors will come back up stream looking for culprits. You will be fingered even if it is not your fault. Likely it will be the chemical plant or the rendering plant or the plating plant that is your neighbor. No matter, you will also be fined, you cannot win if the sewer treatment plant goes horrific due to a chemical input. </p>

<p>Bottom line is, have your effluent hauled away by a responsible waste handling contractor. Make sure you maintain proper recorders and make sure the contractor is licensed. Don't discount what I have told you.</p>

<p>I am retired but for many years, I was licensed by California as, an environmental inspector with a specialty in photo effluent sources. I worked for a major manufacture of photo processing equipment and managed a department dealing with this subject. </p>

<p>Re SILVER;<br>

<br /> Besides laws; If one pours silver down the drain one is throwing away a valuable metal; plus the silver ruins natural breakdown of crud/water/dung in the sewer.</p>

<p><strong>Silver is an antiseptic; you screw up and kill the bacteria. </strong></p>

<p>Thus you are helping clog up the sewers with silver. As an antiseptic silver kills off a broad range of stuff 500 + stuff; its used on treating wounds; this goes back several thousand years.</p>

<p>Silver spoons were placed in milk bottles back 100 years ago so the milk would last longer. Storing water in silver containers is know back to 4000 BC.</p>

<p>200 years ago Folk in covered wagons placed silver coins in the water barrels to keep the water fresher.</p>

<p>Silver is both good and bad.</p>

<p>In small amounts you just screw up the sewer system by the antiseptic; in large quanity; it might get out into the ground water</p>

<p>With a silver recover unit; the silver is about all extracted; thus the silver issue is moot; you just have fixer and acid.</p>

<p>The silver imputed into the sewer system by photo lab effluent is converted to silver sulfite in minutes after discharge. Silver sulfite is one of the most inert substances known and is therefore harmless. You are correct that silver and some silver compounds have antiseptic properties. These were used in municipal water treatment but that has ceased. Silver continues to be used in medical applications and as an additive to water filters as a bactericide and to treat swimming pools.</p>

<p>The federal guide lines for silver are 5mg per liter. Some state and local guidelines are less than one-half mg per liter. Electrolytic systems fail to lower the content of the effluent below 5 mg liter. Ion exchange with iron wool or iron filings will lower the content to about 1 mg per liter with constant attention and testing required. Other methods are chemical perception and concentrating by evaporation then haul away. </p>

<p>State and local authorities' list silver as a toxic and no scientific body has been able to convince them otherwise.</p>

<p>Far more important is BOD (biological) and COD (chemical) oxygen demand from the chemicals of the process. Also chlorine demand as fixer causes the chlorine of the treatment plant to bubble out of solution. </p>

<p>The price of silver vs. the cost of removing or hauling away the effluent is a factor. It generally costs far more to treat or haul away than the revenue generated by the silver. Nevertheless, pre-treatment and or haul away is the law in most counties. We can argue the toxicity till we are blue in the face and it doesn’t change the law or the penalties faced from non-compliance. </p>

<p>There are really no black and white answers to these type of questions; thus here in California one contacts the body that governs the toxic stuff; so the Terminator does not blast you away.</p>

<p>The end result of a electolytic silver recovery system can be run through a 2nd process /stage; the glorifed 5 gallon recovery bucket with still wool to get the silver down to low levels.</p>

<p>Or even a 3 stage process. ie the 1st is the electolytic silver recovery system; the 2nd and 3rd tanks with steel wool. Tank #3 is moved to tank #2's middle position; and old #2 sent to a silver recovery or disposal place. A brand new tank or will refill then goes on on the last #3 stage.</p>

<p>One simple dumb cheapie recovery unit here has no rotatlng parts; it is from a Dentists office. It mentions to not even attempt to recover silver until the silver level is 4 to 6 grams per litre. It recovers about only 1/50 Troy oz per hour.</p>

<p>One much bigger recovery unit here has a rotating anode and adjustable current parts; we got it new about 1979 for about 600 bucks. It recovers about only 3/4 Troy oz per hour. If the current is too low one gets finer grade silver and the flake is whitish. Correct current makes a grey flakes and pulls more silver out. Too much current makes a rotten egg smell and a lower grade of flake</p>

<p>The electolytic silver recovery system I think really does not even start or work well at low silver concentrations</p>

<p>Alan;<br>

<br /> Here the rotating anode has been removed; dried and then the silver flake scraped off.<br>

<br /> There is probably an equal volume still in the bottom of the recovery tank too as a silver sediment.</p>

<p><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/ektar/fixer%20and%20dev/DSCN1127ANODECLEAN.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/ektar/fixer%20and%20dev/DSCN1130sliverflakeclose.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Clint; what brand of silver recovery unit do you have?<br>

Have you contacted the maker? Do you have a passive unit ie steel wool; or active unit ie has to be powered ie anode cathode type?</p>

<p>Kelly, over the years I designed, and my company marketed this type of unit with several different electronic current setting sensors to avoid sulphurization. We also marketed evaporation units, several chemical precipitation units, reverse osmosis, ion exchange using iron, copper, zinc, and resins. Your system is typical of a lab with a volume of 100 rolls a day. Silver recovery can be very rewarding.<br>

You should be proud of your accomplishments - a tip of the hat from me! </p>