[Leica] Re: Disposal of chemistry

[jcb at visualimpressions.com (JCB)]

All down the drain.

It is far more benign than many things you can buy, use, and pour down the 
drain.

Home darkroom photo chemistry, color and B&W, would neither be able to be 
shipped nor sold over the counter if it had the potential of causing a 
problem. Even commercial labs get their chemistry via truck and spent 
chemistry goes down the drain. Because commercial labs run a huge amount of 
film and paper, their is a substantial amount of silver to be recovered. 
But other than the metallic silver, it all goes down the drain.

The companies have reformulated their chemistry, over the past dozen or so 
years, to remove hazardous chemicals, such as formaldehyde and potassium 
ferricyanide. So unless you brew your own soup, containing copious amounts 
of bad stuff (formaldehyde, potassium ferricyanide, etc.) it all ends up 
benignly neutral when it arrives at your local sewage treatment plant.

JB