[pure-silver] Re: "Green" Developer

Thanks Richard,
I'm sure I'm only micro-polluting, but the picture of the fish with X for any eye makes me wonder if I should switch. I've been reading all sorts of great things about XTOL anyway. It might be better with 35mm Tri-X for all purpose work. If I want more grain I can always push it. 

E.

On Nov 28, 2009, at 9:39 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Elias Roustom" <elroustom@xxxxxxxxx > 
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2009 6:24 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: "Green" Developer



Yes that really is a question.

I am complying with the laws of my state already - but I'm trying to
be better than simply compliant.

"In sewered areas, developer and rinse solutions may be poured down
the drain."
Full text here: http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/hazardous/photo.htm

Thanks,

Elias
Unless you are developing a massive amount of film the volume of developer is not going to contribute much to polution. Some silver accumulates in B&W developer but most of it winds up in the fixer. Color blix or separate bleach and fix solutions also accumulate a significant amount of silver, more than in B&W because no silver remains in the film. For ordinary fixer one can recover much of the dissolved silver by putting steel wool in the solution and leaving it for a time. The steel wool should be free of oils or soap. The silver will plate out on the wool. An interesting experiment is to clean a penny until and place it in some used fixer. After a time it will become silver plated. There are more elaborate and efficient methods of recovering silver. Commercial color labs recover nearly all the silver from solutions for three reasons: 1, it extends the capacity of the solutions; 2, environmental protection (probably required by law); 3, recycling the silver, which is worth some dough and a large lab, like a motion picture lab, will recover a lot if it. 

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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