I reached out to Gulabi, a local film development lab in the South side of Glasgow founded in 2019 to ask them a few questions. Here's an example of some of black and white photos that Gulabi have developed and scanned for me.
I asked them five main questions and here are the responses from Chris, one of the founders.
What do you do with disposable cameras once you’ve developed them? Is there a recycling process you use?
"We save them up and ship them away for recycling. First we send them to our wholesale supplier, then they get shipped to a location in Europe to a shipping container. When the container is full, it gets shipped to China, where the cameras are either repurposed into fresh cameras or stripped for parts and disposal. While we don’t have a lot of love for disposable cameras, we do understand that they’re an affordable and accessible way for people to engage with analogue photography, and this is the best we’re able to do with them!"
How do you dispose/reuse the small film tubs that film is packaged with and what do you do with the canisters once the film has been developed?
"The plastic tubs are picked up by Still Life who are located just up the road, and melted down to make household objects and furniture. We actually started in the same building, in the studio across from them in 2019, before moving to our current premises. They also melt down the plastic bottles that our colour chemicals are packaged in. We made a little post about it here"
How do you dispose of the film processing chemicals safely?
"We used to have them collected by a third-party chemical disposal company, where the spent chemicals are processed to recover any silver left, and the remaining product disposed of safely. Right now we’re in the process of bringing that process in-house — we’re getting silver recovery machine installed next month which will save on the environmental cost of transporting all those chemicals."
Do you have tips for reducing the emissions/effect on the climate of taking film photos?
"From where we stand, the size of the analogue industry is so small that the effects of individuals to reduce waste/emissions are fairly negligible. However, there are small things one can do — buying bulk rolls and rolling film yourself into used cassettes is a main one. Extending the usable life of mechanical (and electronic, to a degree) helps offset the emissions made in the creation and transport of that object. Again, though, this is fairly negligible in terms of larger global emissions, and I really hate buying into the individualisation of carbon offsetting! In my humble opinion, one’s energy would be better spent joining a campaign/activist group to affect larger systems (Get Glasgow Moving is a good example!)"
How do you think film photography will change over the next decade and how have you seen it grow in the past few years?
"God, who can say! The resurgence is wonderful, and the growth and interest we’ve seen since we’ve started (late 2019) is wild. It’s SO heartening to see younger people discover the excitement of analogue, and for older folks rediscovering the joy of shooting film. Even through the ongoing colour film shortage, the demand for film has been ever increasing. On the dreary side, I can’t help but worry about the virtual monopoly Kodak (Eastman/Alaris) has on the colour film market. The aggressive and short-sighted price increases from them are squeezing so many people out, and we’re just left to try and do our best to absorb costs in other ways to keep analogue somewhat affordable."
Main takeaways and further questions.
Chris' answers have made me wonder where my focus should be. It seems that the recycling and repurposing of film photography waste isn't the issue and I can see where he is coming from when he says film isn't the biggest problem impacting our planet right now. Maybe for film to be sustainable in the future its about encouraging more independent innovations from small film labs and producers, to create more sustainable, affordable film.
I wonder whether there is scope for more indie film makers creating colour film to stop the monopoly that Kodak has on film, and why there isn't more out there. I also wonder what the process is of bulk buying film and winding it into canisters yourself and if this is an opportunity to reduce our impact.
I'm also curious to know how the silver recovery machine works.
Thanks again to Chris for all of the help so far! Please have a look at Gulabi on instagram and online which are linked earlier in the post!
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