For a long time, silver halide photographic film and paper have been employed in the graphic arts field. Since these materials are subjected to wet processing, which is not friendly to the environment, a decrease in the amount of processing wastes has been required. Furthermore, in January 1996, London Convention was put into force to prevent dumping of photographic processing wastes. Since then, a decrease in the wastes has increasingly been demanded in view of global environmental protection. In order to meet these requirements by each of the several photographic material manufacturers, introduction of products, and research and development have been carried out toward, in addition to the reduction in processing wastes, a decrease in packaging materials, improvement in recycling properties. In another aspect, dry film materials which require no processing solution have been developed and recently introduced into the market.
View full abstract