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Water-damaged X-rays for recycling

With the recent weather activity in the U.S. and storms such as Hurricane Beryl in Texas, we have been receiving numerous inquiries about the possibility of recycling all types of X-rays that have been flooded. If you are looking to restore the information on these X-rays, there may be some companies that can assist with that. In most cases, when the X-rays are heavily water-damaged, they become scrap and need to be recycled.

Recycling of flooded or wet medical X-rays

If a film was water-damaged while in the paper jackets or envelopes, it becomes very difficult to remove the actual film from these envelopes, which, in turn, complicates the recovery of silver from the film. Consequently, the silver washing recovery process will not be available.
In this case, the film will be incinerated along with the papers instead of being washed. Burning film is an outdated technique for silver recovery that is seldom used due to the risks of air pollution, increased costs, and the loss of plastics; however, we recycle wet medical X-rays both in and out of their jackets.

It is easier to recover silver from water-damaged medical film when it is out of the jackets. However, there are limitations to this process as well. The sheets stick together when the X-rays get wet due to water getting trapped in between. This may produce a strong acid odor, making transportation more difficult. It all depends on how long the film has been sitting after the water damage occurred.

Wet industrial and lithographic film recycling

Silver can be recovered from Industrial (Non-Destructive Testing film) and Lithographic negatives (News printing film) in offset printing, contingent upon specific conditions such as soaking the film.

If you have any X-rays that have been exposed to water, please contact us using the form on the right side of this page or call us.
We will provide you with all the necessary information to ensure their proper recycling.