Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:38 AM 3/8/1999 -0800, Jim Brick wrote... >It has been known by the silver recovery industry, for over 20 years, that >silver was erroneously placed on the "hazardous" waste list. But the >industry didn't complain as it meant more equipment sales. Just recently, I >read (don't remember where) that this (Ag) was being re-evaluated as a >"hazardous" waste. Mercury and other exotic metals yes. Silver/Gold no. Worse. The photo industry didn't complain soon enough because, at the time, the price of silver was high (thanks, but no thanks, to the Hunt brothers), and recovery was profitable. To add serious insult to injury, California law regulated anyone with even a steel wool canister as a "hazardous waste treatment facility", creating an additional two levels of government regulation--state and county, and of course fees for both. It was illegal to haul fixer, or even _pure_ silver removed from the electroplater which you (Jim) had designed, since it was classified by EPA as hazardous waste! Recent legislation has changed this. It is no longer illegal to haul without a hazardous waste permit and the waste treatment facility regulations are going away. However, the local regulation of sewer waste is still in place with the totally absurd post-process limits still in place. Someday, perhaps, science will prevail. I'm glad to be totally outside all this nonsense! >I'm not an expert. But as I said, I designed two lines of computer >controlled silver recovery products. The companies I worked for, as well as >the refiners, (their chemists) used to laugh at the EPA regulation. The >worst part of recovery is at the refiners. They use a very very toxic >Cyanide based process for raw recovery. And then have to dispose of the >Cyanide. Yeah. Not to mention the high levels of chromium coming out of those steel wool canisters. Elemental silver is inert. Silver sulfide is inert. Silver thiosulfate degrades to silver sulfide long before it reaches the sewage plant. >Like putting MTBE in our gasoline. Far worse, except for lower volumes, perhaps. > >Stupid! > >Causes more problems than it solves. > Yup! Mike "Sing whatever is well made..." - -W. B. Yeats