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There are countless objects and products that we accumulate at home and that we really no longer need to keep. For this reason, many times when we decide to clean we take big bags and put everything we do not want, throwing it away. If we organize ourselves a little bit, we can get this waste to have a second life, help someone who may need it and that does not pollute the environment.
A clear case is X-rays, which although we cannot give them to anyone because they need them as such, they can have a second life and can be reused. If we prefer to simply throw them away because we don't want to start doing crafts, we have to think where to throw old x-rays that we no longer need. Next, in Green Ecologist we tell you why they should not be thrown into the normal garbage and where they must be taken so that they are processed without contaminating.
Why X-rays Pollute the Environment
Although we see X-rays as a piece of plastic, cannot be disposed of in the yellow container along with other plastics. The reason is that, although its composition does have a plastic base, it also contain heavy metals, like silver, therefore cannot be mixed and must be treated separately and appropriately to avoid contamination.
When they are disposed of in the normal garbage, usually in the gray container or wastebaskets, they end up in garbage dumps or in open fields. Then, when it gets wet or begins to decompose due to the action of climatic agents, heavy metals that compose them come out of the plastic part that held them until that moment and they pollute the land, crops, waters, and so on. This is dangerous because we can end up ingesting these heavy metals and, in addition, the farmland loses its fertility and good condition to be able to cultivate and the fish and plants of the rivers and other aquatic environments end up dying from poisoning.
Do X-rays kept at home pollute?
Many people wonder if the X-rays they keep at home, whether for current medical reasons or if they are needed later as a medical history or follow-up on a health problem, also pollute or if they only pollute the environment.
The truth is that while they are well stored X-rays at home do not contaminate, since they do not give off radioactivity as many believe, nor do they give off the heavy metals they contain if they are not very wet or left in the open.
Therefore, we should not be alarmed and get rid of all those that we keep in this format, since they can also still be useful for the medical monitoring of our health. Also, luckily, nowadays there are not so many plastic film x-rays to patients, but the hospital keeps them in digital format and if we need it, they also give them to us in digital format, either on a CD, a pendrive or USB memory or they send them to us by email. So the future, luckily, are the digital x-rays.
Where can I throw away the old X-rays
If you need to get rid of x-rays on plastic film that you no longer want to have at home, it is best that you inform yourself well of where to dispose of old x-rays so they do not contaminate the environment. These are the options that exist, although not all are available in all countries.
Hospitals and clinics
In most hospitals and some medical clinics there is a special container for depositing discarded X-rays. Later, when the container is full, it is emptied and they are all taken to a recycling plant specialized in treating these plastic plates with heavy metals. As we will see later, when treated, contamination is avoided and a good part of these X-rays ends up being recycled.
Pharmacy
In many pharmacies you can also find these containers, they are usually red containers or that specifically indicate that they are to dispose of X-rays. In this case, the operation is exactly the same as in hospitals.
X-ray collection centers
In some countries, especially in areas near hospitals or near X-ray recycling plants, there are specific collection points or centers for these materials. Again, as the containers are filled, they are transferred to the nearest treatment plants for recycling in a way that does not harm the environment.
Clean or green spots
Finally, another option to recycle X-rays that already exists in many countries is to deposit them in a green or clean point. These are points that have several special containers and specialized personnel to help citizens to treat the different waste that cannot be thrown in the normal recycling containers (brown, blue, yellow and green). As with the rest of discarded materials, when the container is complete they take it to the recycling plant indicated in each case.
Discover in this other Green Ecologist article what a clean point is and what it is for.
In addition, you can choose not to discard them, since at home you can do crafts to reuse old x-rays like, for example, making an original lampshade for a lamp.
How Old X-Rays Are Recycled
We have mentioned that the X-rays deposited in hospitals, pharmacies, collection centers and clean points are taken to a recycling plant specialized in dealing with these materials, which contain both plastic and heavy materials such as silver. But what is the recycling process of an x-ray?
- Once the bags or containers full of X-rays arrive, their state of deterioration is evaluated at the recycling plant and they are cut into very small pieces or ground. In this way, the rest of the process is easier and, in addition, the personal data protection law is complied with, since they usually carry the written name of the patient.
- When you have the small pieces, they are placed inside large baskets that are part of tanks or washing machines and centrifuges, which contain various specific products to extract heavy materials.
- The baskets are passed from one bath to another, in the order necessary so that the products can act correctly to extract the metals from the plastic. This process can be said to be equivalent to washing the radiographs.
- The result is small plastic sheets. In other words, old X-rays are converted into PET plastics, which are recyclable and can be used to make plastic bottles, plastic containers or even textile fibers and make, for example, polar linings.
- The resulting silver solution, which has remained in the tanks or washing and spinning machines, is refined and marketed as silver, so it is reused.
If you want to read more articles similar to Where to throw old X-rays, we recommend that you enter our Recycling and waste management category.
