Kodak wanted to demonstrate that an innovative regulatory option to reduce silver discharges from photoprocessing facilities could achieve environmental goals more effectively and efficiently than traditional regulatory approaches, delivering cost savings and simplifying municipal pretreatment program administration.

Kodak worked with The Silver Council, the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, the U.S. EPA, and others to develop a best management practices approach to maximizing the recovery of silver and minimizing its release to the environment by recommending specific technologies, equipment, and management practices for controlling silver discharges. In 1995, the results of this collaboration produced the Code of Management Practice (CMP) for Silver Dischargers. Pollution prevention recommendations for facilities to minimize wastes and conserve water were also a key part of the CMP.

Both customers and regulatory authorities have experienced the benefits of the CMP. Municipalities can now implement the CMP as a legally authorized and fully enforceable element of their industrial wastewater pretreatment program, or as a voluntary program. Either approach provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional numerical discharge limits for silver and results in consistent and significantly improved silver recovery. The photographic industry’s customers now have cost-saving tools for recycling a non-renewable natural resource (silver), conserving water, and ensuring environmental protection.