Re: Environmental Impact

Hi Jeffrey,
As I work in a big hospital- I bring all my exhausted chemicals to the
biohazard area.
I live on a small island that has a septic field and would never put
anything nasty in it or in the field where it impacts the water system (I
have a well).
Bye for now-Susan
www.susanhuber.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey D. Mathias" <jeffrey.d.mathias@att.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 5:03 AM
Subject: Re: Environmental Impact

> Rick Retzlaff wrote:
> > I am going to be conducting an outdoor workshop in traditional
photography
> > and alternative printing this summer. The festival I am working with is
> > very much environmentally conscious ...
> >
> > On-site negative processing -- at home we probably all just flush the
stuff
> > down the drain. However, what is the real impact of this stuff? Does
the
> > waste treatment system deal with this in any rational way? Or do we
count
> > on extreme dilution to make it insignificant? What would be the impact
if
> > these chemicals were dumped into the bush?...
>
> The following is brief and rough:
> Typical disposal for acids is to neutralize and dilute.
> Most film developers will biodegrade, but treat as acids.
> Fixer should have silver reclaimed from it before disposed as an acid.
> Other solutions which accumulate metal salts should have the metals
> reclaimed if practical.
> Dichromates are bad and can only be well diluted.
> Solvents should never be used, but if so any used solvent sent to a
> solvent recycling company and never put down a drain.
>
> The quantities typically used and disposed in a municipal sewer will
> likely cause no problem. However concern must be given that some
> materials disposed of in a septic system can accumulate over time in the
> leach field.
>
> > ... Ideally, it would be the easiest to just wash out the cyanotype
> > into the environment (ie bush) directly. Otherwise, we would have to
> > collect it in bins and haul it away to dump into a waste treatment
system of
> > some sort. ...
>
> The answer is in your beginning statement. If you are to throw any used
> anything "into the bush", it is likely you will receive the wrath of the
> "environmentally conscious". The best way to look good is put the waste
> into a large bucket to be disposed of properly (as mentioned above.)
> Also keep in mind that in this situation you describe, the politics
> outweigh the science.
>
> --
> Jeffrey D. Mathias
> http://home.att.net/~jeffrey.d.mathias/
>
>
Received on Thu Mar 31 07:24:38 2005