I am on septic and well system and think that B&W development chems in moderate amounts will pose little harm. The metallic silver in the fixer is the problem (anti-microbal) and there are a variety of ways to remove it. Do a Google search. This does not hold for bleaches used in various B&W processes (e.g potassium ferricyanide, chlorine etc. or toners). I would not put those in my septic under any circumstances, particularly if there is drinking water nearby (I understand that chlorine + organics can = dioxins).
Color is right out for a septic system, IMHO. The chems are nasty. Don't use 'em. Or see if your local mini-lab will discard yours with theirs for a fee.
If you don't want to deal with silver removal yourself, you can save your fixer in 5 gallon paint containers (even when I was printing and developing every week, it still took me 6 months to generate 5 gallons of used fixer) and then find someone locally who is already performing this function to include your fixer with theirs. Colleges often are very responsible with their waste (I live near Middlebury College in Vermont in the USA. . .), commercial darkrooms often do silver recovery on their own fixer, or you can turn over your five gallon drum to your local hazerdous waste transfer station (although this seems excessive to me).
Seriously, the volumes of waste produced by a home darkroom have always seemed small to me. What is your wife's specific objection?
As to volumes of wast water - you will have to do your own math. Here is how it works out for me for eight rolls of 35mm or 120 film in a Jobo processor:
1 liter each developer, stop, fix, wash-aid (in theory the stop and fix can be re-used for up to 20 rolls of film, but in practice, I rarely develop that much at a go) = 4 liters total.
4 liters pre-wash; 4 liters post wash-aid; 1 liter photo-flo/end run.
So 13 liters of H2O and assorted chems per 8 rolls of film- certainly less than a load of laundry or the H20 used in 1 dish-washer cycle. Add another 8 liters of H2O to rinse/clean up at the end. You are still looking at about 5 gals total; far less than the typical American uses in a morning shower.
FWIW, my developer these days is a mix-it yourself developer made out of Ascorbic Acid (Viatmin C from health food store), Borax (a laundry additive) and Lye with a very, very small amount of phenidone as a developing agent (100 grams of phenidone will last me over five years). Patrick Gainer's recipe.
My stop bath is Heinz vinegar from Costco.
My fixer is Heinz vinegar plus amonimum thiosulfate (although you could use sodium thisosulphate instead).
Wash aid is mostly sodium sulphite (a food additive).
So all in all the stuff that I'd be pouring down my drain is stuff that won't do our septic buggies or ground water much harm. Depending on volume, that is. Now I am not developing as much (mucho digital these days). If I was suddenly developing 100 rolls a week, I'd look into silver recovery of some kind. But not for 100 rolls a year. I might be less cavalier about these water amounts if I lived in a desert or had a well with water supply problems.
Ben Marks
Ben Marks
