At 04:10 PM 3/1/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Edward Gisske wrote:
>
>>It is also highly immoral, if not illegal, to dump it
>>into a city sewer system. Putting it out in the trash is also rude....
>>
>>Dealing with the toxic waste is one of the more difficult problems with
>>hobby-etching.
>>
>>
>>
>Contact your local haz-mat authority (or sewage treatment).  Whenever I
>did they simply said dump it down the drain after learning that I was
>dispensing of less than a 55 gallon drum.  Obviously this will vary from
>place to place as your treatment center may use a different method than
>mine, and perhaps this will interfere.  Spent Ferric-chloride will cause
>no significant damage to piping in small quantities, though I still let
>the water run awhile after I dump it.
>
>If you cannot dump it down the drain, they will often tell you to mix it
>with kitty litter or similar clay based absobent and send it to the
>dump.  In larger quantities they'll suggest several companies that deal
>with toxic waste.
>
>I would not consider it immoral or illegal to dump small quantities of
>chemicals down the drain once I was told by local authorities that it's
>acceptable to do so.
>
>Please note that here I'm talking about ferric-chloride.  I've no
>experience with other etchants.

My local landfill has a hazardous materials section where you can drop
off paint, solvents, car batteries, and other HOUSEHOLD items. I suspect
they'd be okay with small "hobby" amounts of FeCl, and very unhappy with
larger "business" amounts.

But my wife, who is an expert in wastewater and other environmental
technical and legal matters, thinks a bit down the home drain with lots
of water isn't a technical problem.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

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