INTERNATIONAL CLEANER PRODUCTION INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE 

CASE STUDY #46





1.   Headline: Recycling water and waste in the photographic

     industry



2.   Background: The photographic industry traditionally uses

     large volumes of water in photographic processing. In the

     past, this had led to a waste of processing chemicals and

     pollution problems associated the discharge of

     wastewaters.



    The Black Photo Corporation, located in Markham, Ontario,

is Canada's largest vertically integrated photo retailer and

photofinisher



3.  Cleaner Production Principle: New technology



4.   Description of Cleaner Production Application: To solve

     these problems, Altech Technology Systems Inc. formulated

     and designed System Crystal (trade name), a closed-loop

     system that cleans and recycles water, regenerates and

     reuses some of the photographic wastes for Canada's

     largest photofinisher, Black Photo Corporation. The

     photofinishing plant, which used to discharge 265 000

     liters of wastewater daily, now has a final closed-loop

     system by-product of only 750 liters of mixed

     photochemistry concentrated per day.



     Enabling technology: System Crystal consists of three

     related processes:



     - Aqua-Flo is the closed-loop treatment system which uses

     water sterilization and membrane separation technologies

     to achieve a 97 per cent reduction in process water usage;

    - Chemcharge is the process chemical analysis and

treatment step which allows more than 90 per cent of the

chemicals used in photofinishing to be regenerated and reused;

and

     - Chemnet uses a vacuum distillation unit to recover the

     water from the mixed photochemistry concentrate, leaving a

     small residual which is disposed of as a hazardous waste.



5.  Economics: The net result of the new system has been a

cost increase; however, raw material costs have been reduced,

the challenge of regulatory compliance has been solved, and the

company has an increased market advantage.



    Water use has also been dramatically reduced:



                liters               cost(C$)

        1990    77 million            55 000

        1991    42 million            33 000

        1992    30 million            27 000

        1993    24 million            25 000



6.  Advantages:

    - eliminates sewer discharge

    - reduces water consumption

    - reduces chemical use through regeneration and reuse

     - sets new standards for waste management in the

     photofinishing industry.



7.  Constraints: N/A



8.  Contacts:Dave Bonany

            Black Photo Corporation

            371 Gough Road

            Markham

            Ontario

            Canada

            Tel: +1 905 475 2777

            Fax: +1 905 475 8027



            Alex Keene

            Altech Technology Systems Inc.

            225 Sheppard Ave W.

            Willowdale

            Ontario M2N 1 N2

            Canada

            Tel: +1 416 226 0148



9.             Keywords:Canada, photographic industry, photo-

               finishing, recycling, new technology, water

               saving, raw material saving



10. Reviewer comments: This case study was originally

published in the UNEP IE document "Cleaner Production in the

ASIA and Pacific Economic Coorporation (APEC) Region. In the

process of preparing the document the case study underwent a

technical review.