RE: Misc: Silver Reclaimation (from Silver Staining)

Chin, David T. (ChinD@missouri.edu)
Wed, 24 Nov 1999 10:21:58 -0600

Chuck,
Say silver is: 8g / liter ~ 1/4 oz./ liter and $15 / oz, then
less chemicals and your time to recover it
You work out the math.
The only way it MAY be profitable to the environment or for $, is to
give it way to a group than recovers silver from X-ray processing solution
(economies of scale). However, X-ray film uses less silver than the old
days, so I don't know if they even do this anymore. The service people who
take care of the hospital X-ray developer should know.

David.

-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck Burkins [mailto:chuck.burkins@pobox.com]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 1999 3:32 PM
To: Recipients of ABRF List
Subject: Misc: Silver Reclaimation (from Silver Staining)

Hi all,

We use ammonaical silver staining of our gels, which uses 8g silver
nitrate per liter of basic (ammonia and NaOH) solution. We generate
liters of this waste, and we were wondering if anyone successfully
reclaims the silver. I've checked with several waste metal reclaimation
companies that handle photographic waste, but they tell me that it's not
worth their (or my) while to recover the silver. Can anyone point me in
the direction of a company that'll handle this sort of reclaimation? Or
can anyone tell me that I'm wasting my time?

Thanks for your help.

Charles Burkins
burk@pobox.com