Title 15 of the Rules of the City of New York Section 19-07 governs the discharge of total silver halide process wastewater into public sewers based on the daily volume of total silver halide process wastewater discharged from any of NYU’s photography or x-ray facilities (<100 gallons/day).
EPA RCRA requires the safe management of hazardous waste. Silver-bearing wastes are currently considered RCRA hazardous for toxicity although this waste stream is deemed non-hazardous by stripping the silver from the effluent and therefore is not managed as RCRA hazardous waste.
The program applies to all NYU areas that have photo or x-ray processing units. The silver that collects in the fixer solution during photographic or X-ray film processing is toxic and cannot be discharged to the sewer. Therefore, silver recovery units have been installed at all NYU photo/x-ray processing locations.