Film cans

[ffutures]

Anyone got any 35mm or APS film cans they don't want? My department uses them for small quantities of chemicals etc., we used to get them from Happy Snaps but it's getting difficult to find useful quantities as everyone goes digital.

If anyone who is likely to meet me in the next while has any to spare I'd be very grateful - the clear ones made by fuji etc. are most useful, but the black ones are OK.

And if you're in the US or something, please don't just throw these cans away - they have a multitude of uses!

Comments

[nokomarie.livejournal.com]

Huh. Maybe...My sister works for MIT in the documents section. Maybe...I shall check.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm in Britain so it probably isn't worthwhile sending them to me - but someone in the US can probably use them for something.

[nokomarie.livejournal.com]

Ah. OK then.

There's an awful lot of stuff that gets wasted around here. I work as a nurse myself and the things I am forced into telling people to throw away shocks even me. But, to hold onto those things means that they will be trying to use the wrong items.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

As an unreformed and unreformable photo-obsessive I should have quite a lot about, unless I was too destructive last time I tidied up. I'll have a poke around this evening and see how many I can find.

[chronivore.livejournal.com]

Huh. I always assumed that the plastic in the film can would react with many chemicals.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

No, it's fine for most inorganics and many organics.

[suewilson.livejournal.com]

John says "You could try writing to the Guardians letters page and asking them."

Apparently it is something of a recurring issue on there :)

[chronivore.livejournal.com]

Just another sign of the failure of the American education system.

My chemistry teacher told us never to store any kind of chemical in anything but glass. The reason given is that "you never know what has gone into composing the plastic so you never know how it could react to what you put in it".

*sigh*

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

They're erring on the side of caution - most cans are just hard polythene. The black ones add an inert filler, usually carbon, but in all cases the cans have to be chemically inert since anything else could affect the film. There are a very few chemicals that aren't safe - solid sodium hydroxide, for example - but most are OK.

[chronivore.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Actually learning something via the internet has made me smile on an otherwise VERY stressful day.

Thanks you, sir.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Well, don't necessarily assume that I know what I'm talking about - for all I know some cans are different and I just haven't come across them, e.g. made of some biodegradable plastic. But we have several hundred with chemicals here, and they're all fine - plastic reagent bottles and beakers are made of polythene, so I would be surprised if it was otherwise.