Darkroom in Europe

[gth]

Setting up a darkroom in Sweden.

What kind of problems do run into with development chemistry and EU regulations and local Swedish regulations?

I saw a pamphlet for the City of Stockholm and they are basically pledging to hunt down and eliminate "all chemicals". Hydroquinone was especially mentioned and how great it was with digital photography and the elimination of chemical photo processing.

So what gives?

Can you use a traditional darkroom and processes over there or will you be hunted down by PC environment officials?

[papac]

There are rules for what you can dump true the sink but most citys have systems/facilitys where you can get rid off it for free. Not likely that you will be hunted down unless you are planning a big commersial lab.

[Mark Woods]

You can take it to a hazardous waste site or take it to a film lab. They would probably process it for a small fee.

[gth]

Nice site Christian. So do you develop your own film?

It's not like I want to dump sliver effluent into any nearby stream, it makes sense to comply with reasonable environmental regulations. Mostly I am/was afraid of out and out prohibitions from using traditional developers etc.

If you have your own lab, do you do any post processing of lab discharge?

My lab is in a rural area so access to disposal facilities probably means at least a long transport.

And how strict do you need to be… ok, processing developer/fixer baths I understand but what about all the print wash water?



There are rules for what you can dump true the sink but most citys have systems/facilitys where you can get rid off it for free. Not likely that you will be hunted down unless you are planning a big commersial lab.

[papac]

Thanks. I develop my stuff at home, living out in the country but I have a recycle facility run by the county not far away. What I understand is that the metals in the fixer are what they don't want out in streams or the central wastewater treatment plants. We can for no fee leave that in a container. Rensing water is no problem.

To be frank it's up to every individual and your moral. No one will hunt you so don't be scared to put up your own lab. If you do it as buissness it's different. Then you have to have permit and there are control systems. Best is to contact the local enviroment office to be safe.

[Pete Watkins]

For Gawds sake calm down.
The amount of chemicals that you are likely to dump down the drain are minimal. Industry and the farmers in the U.K. are doing far worse than all the photographers in Europe.
Brussels seem to have banned most of the really useful photographic chemicals (Uranium Nitrate, Ammonium Dichromate and Mecuric Acid to name a few) so if you don't go against our MASTERS in Brussels you should be safe from being hunted down by the E.U. gestapo.
Look at The Bay and Amazon for any chemicals that you think that you might need and as long as you order them in sensible quantities go for it.
Your art is more important than stupid Euro rules. Look where the creeps in Brussels have got us up 'till now!
Pete.