Solvent-Soaked Rag Disposal/Recycling
Hello, all. I’m wondering how best to safely dispose of/recycle solvent-soaked rags. I’ve always worked in shops with rag services so I just tossed them in the metal bin. Now it’s my own studio and my own worry. I plan on purchasing a fire-safe trash can, but what next? I can’t find any answers anywhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-Katy
Katy… in the years past, prior to folks worrying about recycling, rag disposal was easy. Most of us, or at least most of the printers I’ve worked with, tossed them into a metal trashcan and let them evaporate out. Then we’d either reuse them or throw them into the trash.
Nowadays it’s not a lot better. Rag services typically clean them with solvents or hash soaps and/or toss them, which does not seem to be any better for the environment than the old way. The only other alternative I know is to wash them yourself…. but then you’d be washing soapy, inky gook down into the drain. The end result is still the same.
Sooo…. I must admit to using the old method. BUT since my shop’s consumption of rags is very small, I ‘ve never considered it a big deal.
Katy,
You wish to deal safely with solvent and ink soaked rags. Safe for you and your neighbors, or safe for the environment, or both?
We live in the environment and impact it. We try to do as little harm as possible.
The risk in keeping solvent soaked rags around is spontaneous combustion. I have only known of one case of this happening. One could be too many. The rags must either be kept in a fire safe container (one specifically classified as fire safe), or they must be outdoors and opened up so they cannot spontaneously combust.
If they are to be laundered and reused, some bad stuff will go down the drain. I launder some of mine that are not heavily ink stained. I spread them out or hang them outdoors to allow the solvent to evaporate. Yes, that pollutes the air. So too probably does paint as it dries. The ones I do not intend to launder I burn in a safe place outside. That pollutes the air too, but I think the pollution is no greater than the pollution that may happen by puttting the ink and solvent soaked rag in the garbage dump.
An alternative is to not print and not impact the environment.
inky
Thanks for the responses. I have purchased a self-extinguishing “fire-safe” trash can, so am pretty well covered in terms of fire danger. Environmentally speaking, there doesn’t seem to be much I can do? That’s a bummer.