Non-toxic developers

I live in Greece, where safe disposal of toxic darkroom chemicals is
non-existent. People laugh when I tell them I would like to take my used
chemicals to a collection center.

Yesterday I bought a box of Microphen and another one of Perceptol and I
discoovered to my horror that they are both rather toxic to marine
organisms. I also do a lot of u/w photography and I think it would be
extremely unfair and selfish of me (over and above evry other
environmental consideration, it goes without saying) to enjoy that
environment and its beauties while polluting it every evening through my
darkroom sink.

I would very gladly sacrifice some of my art for a little more
friendliness toward the environment. Does anyone know of a b&w
film+developer
combination that is relatively, if not entirely safe for the environment?
It needs to be afilm that comes in 4X5 sheets. FYI, I also use Microdol-X,
T-Max RS, HC110, Refinal, Rodinal, Technidol. Any of these 'OK'? Doubt
it...

Thanks!


P.S. Switching to digital is out of the question.


Nicholas J. Coscoros

Have a look at Kodak's xtol or Paterson fx-50.
-Lew
"Nicholas J. Coscoros" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) erkeley.EDU...
> I live in Greece, where safe disposal of toxic darkroom chemicals is
> non-existent. People laugh when I tell them I would like to take my used
> chemicals to a collection center.
>
> Yesterday I bought a box of Microphen and another one of Perceptol and I
> discoovered to my horror that they are both rather toxic to marine
> organisms. I also do a lot of u/w photography and I think it would be
> extremely unfair and selfish of me (over and above evry other
> environmental consideration, it goes without saying) to enjoy that
> environment and its beauties while polluting it every evening through my
> darkroom sink.
>
> I would very gladly sacrifice some of my art for a little more
> friendliness toward the environment. Does anyone know of a b&w
> film+developer
> combination that is relatively, if not entirely safe for the environment?
> It needs to be afilm that comes in 4X5 sheets. FYI, I also use Microdol-X,
> T-Max RS, HC110, Refinal, Rodinal, Technidol. Any of these 'OK'? Doubt
> it...
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> P.S. Switching to digital is out of the question.

The films are all about the same... as long as you are doing black-and-white
film photography, there's not much to be gained by changing films.

Kodak Xtol (www.covingtoninnovations.com/xtol) is an unusually low-toxicity
developer.

Fixer is the hard part. In itself, fixer is not toxic, but when it's used,
it dissolves silver from the film. It is important to recover the silver
before disposing of the liquid. There are well-established methods for
doing this.

Nicholas J. Coscoros wrote:
> I live in Greece, where safe disposal of toxic darkroom chemicals is
> non-existent. People laugh when I tell them I would like to take my used
> chemicals to a collection center.
>
> Yesterday I bought a box of Microphen and another one of Perceptol and I
> discoovered to my horror that they are both rather toxic to marine
> organisms. I also do a lot of u/w photography and I think it would be
> extremely unfair and selfish of me (over and above evry other
> environmental consideration, it goes without saying) to enjoy that
> environment and its beauties while polluting it every evening through my
> darkroom sink.
>
> I would very gladly sacrifice some of my art for a little more
> friendliness toward the environment. Does anyone know of a b&w
> film+developer
> combination that is relatively, if not entirely safe for the environment?
> It needs to be afilm that comes in 4X5 sheets. FYI, I also use Microdol-X,
> T-Max RS, HC110, Refinal, Rodinal, Technidol. Any of these 'OK'? Doubt
> it...
>
I think you are pushing a rock uphill with your nose.

You will have to find a developer with no sulfite in it, for example,
because it reduces the available oxygen in the water.

Most developing agents are organic compounds that affect organisms to a
lesser or greater extent.

To be fairly sure of doing no harm, you would need to compound a
developer, stop bath, and fixer using compounds found free in nature
with no refining done to them other than filtering out the rocks and stuff.

IIRC, hydrogen peroxide is a developer under some circumstances (it
certainly could be: its structure is a bit like a degenerate case of
hydroquinone). You could use water as a stop bath. Possibly plain sodium
thiosulphate would work for fixer without causing too much harm. The
H2O2 (H-O-O-H) decomposes into nascent oxygen and water, so it might
actually improve the quality of the water.

Another approach would be to use cyanotype process, where no developer
or stop bath is required, though you need to wash for a long time. Its
sensitivity will probably be too low for your camera work, but you can
print on it. The resolution and dynamic range I find to be unacceptable,
but YMMV.

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ Registered Machine 73926.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 11:25am up 23 days, 13:57, 2 users, load average: 2.30, 2.25, 2.19

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 08:19:28 -0700, "Nicholas J. Coscoros"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Yesterday I bought a box of Microphen and another one of Perceptol and I
>discoovered to my horror that they are both rather toxic to marine
>organisms

They are no more toxic than any other developer and I'd wager a good deal
less toxic than the detergent you are using to was your clothes. If you want to
neutralize them as much as possible simply pour the developer into a bucket with
many holes in it near the top to allow fresh air in and the developer will
oxidize completely in 3~5 days depending upon temperature.

BTW, should we assume that you are using dilute development as well ? Most
developer can be diluted 1:3 easily often much further.

Regards

John S. Douglas, Photographer
http://www.darkroompro.com

the simplest way, is to collect your spent chemicals into a jar, leave
it ouside and let the sun and a wind do the rest. Once water
evaporates, transfer all the remaining stuff into a can or small jar
and toss with a houshold rubbish. Sulfites will oxidise to sulfates,
hydroquinone and other developers will oxidise too. It should not be
any worse that most of other things people toss to the bin.
When you drain it through your sink, the lot will be processed by the
waste authority. All is collected in huge installations, aerated and
improved, before the effluent is pumped out. If you live in Athens,
probably the installation is upgraded before the Games.


On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 08:19:28 -0700, "Nicholas J. Coscoros"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I live in Greece, where safe disposal of toxic darkroom chemicals is
>non-existent. People laugh when I tell them I would like to take my used
>chemicals to a collection center.
>
>Yesterday I bought a box of Microphen and another one of Perceptol and I
>discoovered to my horror that they are both rather toxic to marine
>organisms. I also do a lot of u/w photography and I think it would be
>extremely unfair and selfish of me (over and above evry other
>environmental consideration, it goes without saying) to enjoy that
>environment and its beauties while polluting it every evening through my
>darkroom sink.
>
>I would very gladly sacrifice some of my art for a little more
>friendliness toward the environment. Does anyone know of a b&w
>film+developer
>combination that is relatively, if not entirely safe for the environment?
>It needs to be afilm that comes in 4X5 sheets. FYI, I also use Microdol-X,
>T-Max RS, HC110, Refinal, Rodinal, Technidol. Any of these 'OK'? Doubt
>it...
>
>Thanks!
>
>
>P.S. Switching to digital is out of the question.

Hi!

Your posting purprises me somewhat. Since Greece is a member of the EU, I
think that it should be covered by the same regulations for waste disposal
as the rest of Europe. And that means that whoever sold you the chemicals,
are forced to take the used chemicals off your hand (for a fee) and make
sure they are disposed off properly... Check with your local government, I'm
sure they have an environmental department.

And I totally agree with you. I'm a diver/photographer myself and I'd never
dream about pouring fix and D76 into the water!

/Mathias

"Nicholas J. Coscoros" <(E-Mail Removed)> skrev i meddelandet
news:(E-Mail Removed) erkeley.EDU...
> I live in Greece, where safe disposal of toxic darkroom chemicals is
> non-existent. People laugh when I tell them I would like to take my used
> chemicals to a collection center.
>
> Yesterday I bought a box of Microphen and another one of Perceptol and I
> discoovered to my horror that they are both rather toxic to marine
> organisms. I also do a lot of u/w photography and I think it would be
> extremely unfair and selfish of me (over and above evry other
> environmental consideration, it goes without saying) to enjoy that
> environment and its beauties while polluting it every evening through my
> darkroom sink.
>
> I would very gladly sacrifice some of my art for a little more
> friendliness toward the environment. Does anyone know of a b&w
> film+developer
> combination that is relatively, if not entirely safe for the environment?
> It needs to be afilm that comes in 4X5 sheets. FYI, I also use Microdol-X,
> T-Max RS, HC110, Refinal, Rodinal, Technidol. Any of these 'OK'? Doubt
> it...
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> P.S. Switching to digital is out of the question.

No, you are correct. I don't pour that kind of chemicals in to a sewage that
will just be pumped into the ocean. I make sure that detergents and other
"nasty" chemicals are disposed of in a system that has the ability to treat
it properly. And when it comes to darkroom chemicals, and high contents of
heavy elements, such as silver, I wouldn't compair that to soap and coffee
when it comes to damage in the environment. And I'm suprised that you do,

/Mathias

"John" <(E-Mail Removed)> skrev i meddelandet
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 10:15:22 GMT, "Mathias" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >And I totally agree with you. I'm a diver/photographer myself and I'd
never
> >dream about pouring fix and D76 into the water!
>
> Then you MUST not wash your clothing or use any household cleaners either.
> No coffee and no table salt. And considering that the human body excretes
> catechol, I hope you can really, really hold it !
>
> Regards
>
> John S. Douglas, Photographer
> http://www.darkroompro.com

Nicholas,

I did some research in this area last year when looking at buying a
house with a septic tank and now have a full sized ringbinder with
helpful information gleaned from the net as well as old Darkroom mag
articles and other such tidbits.

For film and paper developers, Gainer Vitamin C Phenidone. (contact me
privately if you want details or look at http://unblinkingeye.com for
the article by Pat Gainer). The least toxic of any developer because
it only has three ingredients (maybe POTA pips it, but of limited use
because it is highly specialised).

Use the Ilford wash sequence for a water stop as well as a final
rinse. I use an adapted technique for fibre paper. 6 _real_ changes of
water per print in a tray at 20C over a couple of hours, with an
initial carbonate 'hypo clear' as well.

Fix is the biggest concern, this is where you have heavy metals
(metallica hehe) in solution. If not doing toning will be your biggest
concern. The only way to really be sure is to recycle fix. Big labs or
Photo schools or Hospitals (X-rays) can take fix to recycle for the
silver, find one near you.

I have recently been reading about not using film for paper fix
because of the dissolved iodide in film fix. You might want to
consider using separate fixers and/or testing for fix exhaustion for
each of them. Big prints use up fixer fast!

Yeah - switching to digital is out the question.

Regards, Nicholas

"Nicholas J. Coscoros" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed). Berkeley.EDU>...
> I live in Greece, where safe disposal of toxic darkroom chemicals is
> non-existent. People laugh when I tell them I would like to take my used
> chemicals to a collection center.
>
> Yesterday I bought a box of Microphen and another one of Perceptol and I
> discoovered to my horror that they are both rather toxic to marine
> organisms. I also do a lot of u/w photography and I think it would be
> extremely unfair and selfish of me (over and above evry other
> environmental consideration, it goes without saying) to enjoy that
> environment and its beauties while polluting it every evening through my
> darkroom sink.
>
> I would very gladly sacrifice some of my art for a little more
> friendliness toward the environment. Does anyone know of a b&w
> film+developer
> combination that is relatively, if not entirely safe for the environment?
> It needs to be afilm that comes in 4X5 sheets. FYI, I also use Microdol-X,
> T-Max RS, HC110, Refinal, Rodinal, Technidol. Any of these 'OK'? Doubt
> it...
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> P.S. Switching to digital is out of the question.

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 15:11:51 GMT, "Mathias" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

<snip>

> And when it comes to darkroom chemicals, and high contents of
>heavy elements, such as silver, I wouldn't compair that to soap and coffee
>when it comes to damage in the environment. And I'm suprised that you do,

I don't. I was responding to the "horror" of the toxicity of Microphen and
Perceptol.

As far as fixer, just pour it into a bucket with some steel wool and the
silver will be removed.


Regards,

John - Photographer & Webmaster - http://www.darkroompro.com