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The waste

Silver, and 5.0 mg/L

Updated

On this page8
One row in one table, and a sentence that removes the laboratory step.

The characteristic

A solid waste exhibits the characteristic of toxicity if, using the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure, the extract from a representative sample contains a Table 1 contaminant at or above the listed concentration.

The row that matters

EPA hazardous waste number D011, contaminant Silver, CAS number 7440-22-4, regulatory level 5.0 mg/L. That is the whole of the silver provision and it is a single line in a long table.

And the sentence that simplifies it

Where the waste contains less than 0.5 percent filterable solids, the waste itself, after filtering using the methodology in Method 1311, is considered to be the extract for the purpose of the section.

Which is what spent fixer is

A liquid with essentially no filterable solids. So there is no leaching procedure to run and no extract to prepare: the silver concentration in the fixer is the number compared against 5.0 mg/L.

And ordinary use clears it comfortably

Fixer works by dissolving silver halides out of the emulsion, so silver accumulates in it by design. A working fixer that has done its job is usually far above 5 mg/L, which is why this is treated as the normal case rather than the exception.

Developer and stop bath are different questions

They do not accumulate silver the way fixer does, so the silver characteristic is not the issue for them. They may raise other questions, including pH, and they get their own determination rather than being assumed in or out.

The characteristic attaches to the waste, not to the product

A fresh bottle of fixer is a product with a hazard communication or consumer label. The same chemistry after use is a waste with a determination. Two regimes, and the standard expressly excludes RCRA waste from hazard communication.

References

40 CFR 261.24, the Toxicity characteristic. A solid waste exhibits it where the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure extract contains a Table 1 contaminant at or above the listed level, and where the waste contains less than 0.5 percent filterable solids the waste itself is considered to be the extract. Table 1 lists D011 Silver at 5.0 mg/L. law.cornell.edu
29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication, which sets the six label elements for a shipped container of a hazardous chemical and the sixteen-section safety data sheet. Note that 1910.1200(b)(6)(i) excludes hazardous waste subject to EPA regulation under RCRA, so the product and the waste are under different regimes. law.cornell.edu
Written from federal regulation and from measured catalog data, not from a darkroom. Hazardous waste regulation is federal with authorized state programs on top, and many states and municipalities regulate silver discharge to sewer separately. The determination for a specific waste is the generator’s to make.