Exhausted fixer collection

[dxphoto]

I read about here saying that you can pre-process the exhausted fixer

by putting some steel wool in it so the silver will come out. Does

that also cause some odor?? Will it happen with aluminum? I was

trying to use a aluminum tray to contain the fixer and it totally

ruined my fixer (fixer goes darker and some black stuff came out and

it smells). Any idea???? Thanks.

[melvin_bramley]

Short cuts & economies are seldom worth it.

[patric_dahl_n]

Isn't the black stuff silver?

[conrad_hoffman]

Aluminum is pretty reactive, and shouldn't be used for anything in the darkroom. Unlike the US, I've heard restaurants in Europe aren't even allowed to use it for commercial cooking. Stick with plastic, glass, or stainless steel of the right type. IMO, for the small amounts of fixer used by the average photographer, silver recovery is a waste of time. You can move the silver from the fixer to steel wool (a messy and stinky process), so the fixer goes down the drain, and the silver goes in the trash, but what does that really accomplish at the quantities we're talking?

[peter_svensson]

Yeah, I'm with Conrad. It's safe to pour fixer down the drain, unless perhaps if you have a septic tank. It precipitates as silver sulfide pretty quickly. To simulate this, pour some Kodak Brown Toner in used fixer and watch the black precipitate form immediately.

[john_shriver]

The fish in your area, and the people who eat the fish, would really appreciate it if you remove the silver from your fixer using steel wool. Not to mention the local environmental police, whose rules vary from state to state. It's a cummulative toxin, like mercury.

 

There's nothing at all obnoxious about mixing the fixer and steel wool. I just use a two liter soda bottle, and decant out the liquid later. No bad odors.

 

Or, any legit photo lab who recycles silver will be glad to have some more spent fixer.

[dxphoto]

Hi dudes, I wasn't being 'cheap' to recover the silver. I was being 'cheap' not buying a real tray instead I was using a aluminum tray from the grocery store. Next time I will try the tupperware. j/k. Thanks for the answers.

[dxphoto]

Besides. I send my exhaused fixer to the darkroom I go to. They have a large volume fixers. Strangely, before I thought ritz would accept the fixer but their new manager refused me.

[joename]

If you're in a city, the waste water treatment facitly (READ:sewage) can handle the very small amounts of dissolved metal waste, without any risk to any fish or humans.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Most waste water treatment plants don't remove silver; it just gets let out at the other end; usually a creek. Most processing labs had once silver recovery units; either passive; or active. The passive pail is like a 5 gallon pail full of steel wool. The idea is to collect the silver then get some cash years later when silver prices are at peaks. In small amounts silver is an antiseptic; silver solutions were once used in eyes; cuts; etc. <BR><BR>A low cost source of trays is the thrift stores; walmart too.

[kelly_flanigan1]

With our old process camera; each roll of 42" by 100' roll had alot of silver. The silver recovery process was the "standard" thing a lab did in the 1960's; to save money. This is before folks use the phrase "the environment" much; or before the first earth day. Kodak reps visted labs on several times a year; they brought new passive 5 gallon tanks; and we gave them the ones filled with silver. One got a check with the silver from Kodaks assay dept. There was no hassle; no shipping fees.