Eli5: What is the process that a recycling plant goes through to recycle photo film?

155 views

Eli5: What is the process that a recycling plant goes through to recycle photo film?

In: 1

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Do you mean old-fashioned silver nitrate film? Silver nitrate is applied to the plastic sheet or cellulose with a gel that dries.

In radiography (X-rays), the silver nitrate is literally washed off in a chemical bath that strips the gel from the plastic or cellulose sheet, amd dissolves the gel. This causes it to precipitate out, settling to the bottom as a silver nitrate sludge, which can be collected and recycled. or the silver reclaimed. The chemicals are then neutralized before disposal, as neither the silver or the wash are good to dump in water sources.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The film itself isn’t recyclable. They could probably strip of the aluminium casing and recycle that.