It’s Time to Reclaim Silver that’s Hiding in Old Darkrooms and Film Processing Facilities

If you’re a serious amateur photographer wit old darkroom supplies that you’re not using any more? Or have you come into possession of the contents of a facility that processed photographs or x-rays? Maybe you work in a dental office, a chiropractic office or a hospital x-ray department. If so, today’s post is for you. And it’s a post that could put some needed dollars in your wallet at the time of year when a little extra cash could come in very handy for holiday shopping.

There Is Silver in Old Film-Processing Supplies

The fact is film photography and film processing are processes that rely almost entirely on silver. Silver can be found in the following places – and you can reclaim it easily, thanks to the advanced recycling processes that we employ here at Precious Metals Smelters and Refiners...

Can you spot the silver in this photo of a photographer processing film and making prints? It’s everywhere: in the paper, the chemicals, and the film, and Specialty Metals can help you recycle it all profitably.

• Photographic and x-ray films - They all contain silver. If you have unexposed film, we can extract the silver from it using relatively simple procedures. The processes that were used in years past - like burning the film and processing the ash - were relatively crude and environmentally harmful. Today, we reclaim silver from photographic and x-ray films using approved chemical processes that extract silver. The larger the quantity of film that you have, the more silver and value they have.
• Processing papers – They contain silver too, although in smaller quantities than are found in film. But a large quantity of paper could contain silver that is well worth extracting.
• Processing chemicals – Developing and fixative solutions contain silver too. If you have never seen silver being extracted from these solutions, it is pretty amazing to see. After we add the right chemicals to them, the silver that they contain drops out of the solution – literally precipitates – and it can be easily separated, weighed, and evaluated.
• Tanks and tools – If you are recycling the contents of a home darkroom that was used frequently, or if you are dismantling an old laboratory that processed large quantities of x-ray or photographic film, the used tanks, pipes, filters and other equipment that were used in them probably contain quantities of silver and electrolytic silver flake that we can extract for you. Even the sludge that has built up in pipes can be recycled. Remember that simply tossing old equipment can result in the loss of valuable quantities of silver – plus, doing so can be environmentally irresponsible too.

Call 800-426-2344 to Learn More

Our experts will be happy to answer your questions and promptly pay you the highest dollar value for quantities of silver that can be found in the supplies that are described in today’s post. Why not give us a call today?

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