dbrugger25 Loc: Raleigh, NC

I wonder if putting them in a pot of boiling water woud destroy the images. If it does, you could then just put them into the trash.

photoman43

I have burned a lot of mine too. Just do it safely. If the mounts are plastic, you may have some burned plastic to recycle.

MrPhotog

Boiling water would remove the emulsion, but a bucket with chlorine bleach will do the job faster. It destroys the proteins in the gelatin emulsion, which sloughs off, leaving a blank, clear plastic mounted in a card frame. There is a problem with disposing of the chlorine bleach: You need to dilute it a lot, to dispose of it down a drain.

I’ve used concentrated lye (sodium hydroxide) to remove film emulsions, and it is easier to neutralize with weak acids ( vinegar) before disposal.

A heat gun melts the image as a dry process, but may require some scraping.

Dental images makes me wonder if these could be destroyed in an autoclave.

If there is no personal data on the cardboard mounts those can be discarded as trash. Otherwise those can be burnt or sent out for shredding.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I understand your issue. Many decades ago I got a bunch of negatives that were from pathology studies of patients, tissue slides, photos of tumors, unusual looking deformations of patients. This material was old at the time and likely most of the subjects were dead, but HIPPA and other privacy laws in affect at the time meant that my friends dad who was a research pathologist had to remove by scratching or cutting with scissors all the identifying information from the films. This was usually not more than a patient or case number or last name and initial. The three of us worked on it. Some of the black and white images of cells are interesting. Some years later after the doctor died his family gave me more negatives and a lot of prints. But this material was legally different as it was from his published articles and books. He had gotten publication releases for these images from the patients or their families prior to publication. Sort of like a regular photo model release. I would not use any of the images in any way that could be recognizable.

But anyway, yes you need to either destroy your slides or make then "unreadable". I am not sure what the purpose was of your slides but my understanding was dentists archive old records indefinitely, especially x-ray records as they might be used forensically.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

> They can be burned.

> You could dump them into a bucket of pure bleach. Let them sit for a week and drain off the bleach (dilute 10:1 with water before flushing down the drain!). Rinse with 2-3 changes of water. Dump a gallon or two of waste paint on top of what is left and stir thoroughly. Leave uncovered, outdoors, in the sun. Send the dried paint bucket to the dump... (Okay, so this is probably overkill, but if you really want to be sure...) (Big box stores and paint stores often have bulk containers of mixed-together paint that customers returned, or that didn't meet customers' color expectations.)

> Slides can be destroyed in solutions that will dissolve polyester (Estar® base films) and acetate base "safety" films. However, those solutions tend to be very hazardous (tetrahydrofuran, methyl acetate, acetone or dioxane, or glacial acetic acid will dissolve acetate, but most folks should stay away from them!).

> Heavy duty cross-cut home shredders that destroy CDs and credit cards will eat them. Locate a shredder that's F-2 destructive (film, level 2) or higher. The equivalent for paper would be P-5 (paper, level 5) or higher.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Film and slides continue to retain silver and are considered hazardous waste.
Please dispose of the properly at a hazardous waste recycling facility.
If you burn them the fumes could be toxic.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Only silver halide black-and-white negative films contain metallic silver. So X-Ray films would be an issue. However, color slides are entirely different.

All color film and chromogenic photo paper materials have the silver bleached and fixed out of them during processing. Photo labs recycle hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of silver from their bleach, fixer, and wash water, each year. That is both to meet environmental regulations AND to recover a substantial amount of money from the reclaimed silver flake.

Chromogenic film images are simply dye clouds suspended in gelatin emulsions on a polyester or acetate film base... Slides are mounted (variously) in plastic, paper, glass, and sometimes metal.

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

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Possibly you could burn them or have them burned.

DMCMD

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions.
Much appreciated.
I will follow up in due course as to what I used.
Now back to my family and nature photos, another big sort!
David

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Burkphoto,

Thanks for clarifying that up.

And yes, I was always amazed at how much silver we extracted from depleted chemicals.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Terrible advice HIPPA laws apply.
If you Rob a bank and don't get caught are you not violating the law

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Run them through a chipper shredder, then soak the remains in sulphuric acid, then neutralize those remains with some sort of base, then dynamite whats left. Would that work?

jcboy3

That is specifically against HIPAA disposal rules and regulations. The information must be rendered unreadable before it is put in a trash bin, not after.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Who ever said OP was a dentist?
He said clinical

Allmostretired Loc: Breckenridge MN

Check with a silver refinery, most took old photos, slides and x-rays!
Not sure on transperases. Could be some money in it depending on silver prices. Just google film and photo silver refinery.