How Much Silver Do Old X-Ray Films Contain?

Recycle Refine SilverRecycle Precious MetalsRecycling Medical Devices
Written By Barry Lenson

As we have written before on this blog, old x-ray films contain silver that we can extract for you.

But how much silver do they contain? That’s what a number of our clients have wanted to know over the years. They have called to ask questions like this . . .

“In the hospital where I work, I have been given the job of disposing of medical files and records that are more than 10 years old. Part of my job is disposing of old x-ray imaging film that is no longer needed. Can you let me know about how much silver this film contains? I mean, if I have 500 pounds of the stuff, how much silver can your company extract from it? And what is that silver worth?”

Good Question, Simple Answer

There are variables to consider, including the age of the film, its manufacturer, and whether it is still new in factory packaging or has been developed. But just to give you a ballpark answer, let us just average it all out and say . . .

10 pounds of medical x-ray film usually contains about one Troy Ounce of silver

Don’t hold us to that exact figure! (Again, we are only giving you a ballpark in today’s post.) It is possible that if you send in old x-ray film and have us test it for you, it could contain more or less.

But just to continue our ballpark estimating a little further, we can provide these estimated figures too:

  • If you have 10 pounds of x-ray film to recycle, the one Troy Ounce of silver that it contains is worth about $15.00 at current trading prices.

  • If you have 100 pounds of x-ray film, it will contain about 10 troy ounces of silver, which is worth about $150.00 at current trading prices.

As those estimates show, it is well worth recycling old x-ray films.

And What About Old Photographs and Photo Paper?

That’s a smart question to ask. Unexposed photo printing paper does indeed contain small quantities of silver compounds, including silver halide, that were layered onto the paper surface (and usually held in place there by some kind of gelatinous compound). After that paper is processed and becomes photographs, a certain amount of that silver is usually lost.

But how much silver can be extracted from, say 10 pounds of old photos? We wish we could give you the same kind of ballpark estimate that we gave you when we discussed x-ray film earlier in this article.

But we can’t because there are so many variables. Are we talking about antique black-and-white photographs? Or newer black-and-white photos? Or newer color prints? Or a storage box full of old Polaroid pictures?

The bottom line is, it is impossible to give you an estimate unless we test those photos for you. But we can tell you that if you have several hundred pounds of old photographs, they could well contain a quantity of silver that is worth recycling.

The first step is to send a sample of what you have to our labs, so we can test it for you and send you an estimate of value.

To learn more, call our precious metals refinery at 800-426-2344.

Barry Lenson
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