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I still shoot film, but I have to admit I always feel guilty when I dispose of the used chemicals. That, and not the cost, is the main reason I prepare a lot fo

I still shoot film, but I have to admit I always feel guilty when I dispose of the used chemicals. That, and not the cost, is the main reason I prepare a lot for each frame, and I tend to get much better shots. Still, I'd like to see a day when I could get the same results on digital as on film. The existing solutions like Silver Efex don't even come close.

klodolph 6y ago
From my research, the main thing you shouldn’t pour down the drain is spent fixer. Classic developers contain chemicals like metol and hydroquinone, often in combination, as active agents. The remaining chemicals in developer are things like sodium bicarbonate, borax, and sodium hydroxide. If you are concerned, switch to Kodak Xtol which does not use metol or hydroquinone. Stop bath is just acetic acid and a pH indicator. You can use water as a stop bath if you like, you just run the risk of changing the pH of your fixer. As for fixer, it’s not fixer that is the problem per se—it’s the silver that the fixer removes from your film or paper. The silver will mess up the sewage treatment plant. You can remove the silver by dropping some steel wool into the fixer, it will undergo a redox reaction and you’ll end up with rust and metallic silver. The only thing I am actually scared to work with is selenium toner. You should definitely NOT pour selenium toner down the drain.
- stan_rogers 6y ago
  Quite apart from the waste, selenium toner is... nasty. I mean the smell. One gets rather used to many of the smells of the darkroom, equating them in one way or another with the artist's struggle and horrible little bedsits on the Boul Mich and so on. Selenium is different. It's the sort of smell that makes platinum/palladium seem like a much better idea.
  - klodolph 6y ago
    Yup. I have never used it indoors.
  - duskwuff 6y ago
    All of the non-oxygen chalcogens (sulfur, selenium, tellurium, in theory polonium) are known for their unpleasant-smelling organic compounds -- and, as the elements get heavier, the smells only get worse. Sulfur compounds are bad, selenium compounds are awful... there aren't a lot of chemists working with tellurium compounds, but reports are that even trace amounts have a horrific smell.

klodolph 6y ago

From my research, the main thing you shouldn’t pour down the drain is spent fixer. Classic developers contain chemicals like metol and hydroquinone, often in combination, as active agents. The remaining chemicals in developer are things like sodium bicarbonate, borax, and sodium hydroxide. If you are concerned, switch to Kodak Xtol which does not use metol or hydroquinone. Stop bath is just acetic acid and a pH indicator. You can use water as a stop bath if you like, you just run the risk of changing the pH of your fixer. As for fixer, it’s not fixer that is the problem per se—it’s the silver that the fixer removes from your film or paper. The silver will mess up the sewage treatment plant. You can remove the silver by dropping some steel wool into the fixer, it will undergo a redox reaction and you’ll end up with rust and metallic silver. The only thing I am actually scared to work with is selenium toner. You should definitely NOT pour selenium toner down the drain.

stan_rogers 6y ago
Quite apart from the waste, selenium toner is... nasty. I mean the smell. One gets rather used to many of the smells of the darkroom, equating them in one way or another with the artist's struggle and horrible little bedsits on the Boul Mich and so on. Selenium is different. It's the sort of smell that makes platinum/palladium seem like a much better idea.
- klodolph 6y ago
  Yup. I have never used it indoors.
- duskwuff 6y ago
  All of the non-oxygen chalcogens (sulfur, selenium, tellurium, in theory polonium) are known for their unpleasant-smelling organic compounds -- and, as the elements get heavier, the smells only get worse. Sulfur compounds are bad, selenium compounds are awful... there aren't a lot of chemists working with tellurium compounds, but reports are that even trace amounts have a horrific smell.