Used fixer disposal

[captainslack]

Getting ready to develop my own negs for the first time in 12 years. I'd forgotten the wonderful aromas that photographic chemicals can produce! 😉

I was reading through the mixing instructions on the bottle of Ilford Rapid Fixer and I noticed that it said not to throw it in the garbage can or flush it down the toliet. This brought back memories of day college days working in the photo lab and being told by my instructors that fixer was toxic and we weren't to pour it down the sink.

So, not wanting to pollute any more than I already do, I figured I'd ask: what do you guys & gals do with used fixer? Or, for that matter, used dev & stop?

 

[jano]

I'd like to know as well.

You can reuse fixer up to a certain point, which is what I've been doing. I've got about a liter of spent fixer in a gallon just waiting to go somewhere, once I figure out what to do.

I've read you can drop steel wool into it, but the fumes smell really nasty. Once the reaction is done, you can toss the wool and drain the liquid.. ?

The local camera shop told me to check out the nearby university, they usually have a place for it. I've also read some of the remaining pro labs take it.

If nothing else, try contacting your local government agency or waste-disposal company.

 

[derevaun]

AFAIK the main problem with spent fixer is the silver it contains. It's a heay metal, so it shouldn't go directly into a septic system, ground water, etc. Some say it's OK when diluted in municipal sewers. But anyplace with a silver recovery system is just a better idea regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the above.

My current routine with fixer is to mix up a gallon and use it 500ml at a time, reusing each pint until the clearing time gets to about 6 minutes (I do a leader test while fixing for lack of anything better to do). I pour the spent stuff into another gallon jug, and when it's full I take it to the local college, who dispose it safely for free. The county landfill has a hazo waste program, but it's a longer drive.

 

[captainslack]

I wonder if one of the local lab would take it?

 

[titrisol]

If you are friendly they probably will.
If you fill a 5 gal jug with fixer you'll have a couple of grams of silver.
IIRC you can make most of it a solid waste problem (easier to tackle) if you have some steel wool in the jug. The silver sill deposit in the steel and create a sludge that is easier to dispose of than loquid. Then you may decant the liquid carefully.

PS. as a side note, I just realized plumbers used SILVER THIOSULPHATE (sounds familiar) as "root killer" for maintenance of sewage systems.

I wonder if one of the local lab would take it?

 

[Krasnaya_Zvezda]

You could always let an 8-year old drink it. (Disclaimer: not actually advocating such; do not attempt). But that's what happened to some fixer of mine back in 1980. My girlfriend was over at my house with her 8 year old boy. I had some fixer in the refridgerator, clearly marked "FIX" and "Poison" with the skull-and-crossbones logo. Well, you can't expect a kid to read anything. Anyway, he comes walking out of the kitchen and says, "What's wrong with that water in there?" I jumped out of my skin and said "What water!?" "That water in the fridge," he says. I knew there was no "water" in the fridge...
I got on the phone to national poison control, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Said they would have to call me back (!) It was a good 20 minutes when someone got back to me, and all they could say was "Is the boy doing OK?" I said, yeah, he seems fine. "Then he'll probably be alright, " they said. "Take him to the hospital if he starts acting sick."
Great advice.
He's 33 now, and last I heard he was relatively normal, so I guess it didn't hurt him.
Needless to say, my storage practices changed right then and there.

 

[Goodyear]

Before I started processing at home I contacted Scottish Water (they who runs the pipes and sewers and stuff) and asked them about disposing of chemicals.

They said the only one to worry about was the fix, but even then that the quantities I was producing (a litre or two a month) that it would be fine to dispose of it down the toilet.

The lady I was tlaking to seemed very knowledgeable on the subject - talking to me about the effects of silver pollution etc. She said just to make sure it was well diluted and that it went down the soil pipe (ie the toilet rather than the sink). She also sent me out a load of information intended for commercial labs, but instructed me not to worry about the scary stuff in there because I was rather small time in comparison 🙂

Actually, she seemed rather gratified that I had been concerned enough to contact them for advice!