Chemistry related question

Hi,
It seems there are a few chemists or at least chemistry savvy individuals on here and I am hoping someone can help.

My sixteen year old daughter is enrolled at a local college and in one of her classes the need/desire for nickle and copper plating have been broached. She is keen to give this a try but we are in a bit of a pickle about how we would neutralize the nickle or copper acetate.
She read that baking soda would neutralize it, but she is unsure how she would know it's fully neutralized and then what she should do for disposing of the neutralized items.
We live in a pretty rural area and she has done her due diligence with the local disposal authorities about hazardous waste and they have no answer for her. In fact, they acted as if she had three heads!
I told her there were some very smart chemistry related folks on here and I would inquire, so I am.

Hi mychicknpi.

Ha! What a topic! There is no direct answer for this, but considerations only. I am going for a long reply, so please bear with me.

The end comment that I have is the following and you won't like it: Electroplating as a hobby is not something I would suggest to anyone.

The main reasons are very simple:
1) Safety-related
2) Waste related - with legal connotations.

Let's break it down.
1) The safety aspect: Electroplating can be far more dangerous than soaping, if you touch lye, you might feel a burn, get a blister, a scar in the worst case and be done. If you spill a solution of nickel salt you might not notice it until you develop contact dermatitis, and chronic nickel accumulation has been shown to be carcinogenic. Inhaling powders of metal salts is not the best thing for you, and this includes nickel, copper, etc... Most electroplating solutions contain corrosive or caustic chemicals, and to that, we have to consider the added risk of electrical equipment. Of course, safety is a matter of personal protection, training, attention, and preparation in case accident happens. We assume that this will never happen and that everything is performed following Good Manufacturing Practices.

2) Waste related. This reconnects to your original post.
The answer here is only one.
NO, you cannot neutralize copper or nickel salts. The copper and the nickel will still be there, just as a different compound.
The reason is very simple. A former governor of NJ said it very well: In the US, Toxic is a matter of statute, not opinion.
EPA 40CFR 413/433 regulates the effluents (waste) of electroplating, electroless plating, etching, and anodization. This applies to businesses only, whether multimillion dollar corporations or one-man businesses.
When do you become a business? When you sell your products.

At this point you might say: "I am a hobbyist, so I do not need to comply!" Wrong.
In order to meet EPA regulations, the final concentration of Copper and Nickel in effluents is lower than 4.0 mg/L. If you have 1 oz of copper sulfate, you will need to dilute it in 730 gallons of water to meet EPA requirements.

Now, one could say: "what about the fact that you can buy electroplating kits online?" Well, the company that sells it has nothing to do with the waste. Their compliance ends the moment the shipment leaves their dock. Responsibility for the waste is ONLY attributed to the waste generator, you, FOREVER. Yes, let's say that waste gets stolen three times by three thieves in a row. You will still be responsible for it, no matter what. You pay a company to dispose of it? Should anything happens (mislabeling, unknown composition, accidents caused by the waste, etc...) you are still legally responsible for it unless you can prove it was mishandling by the company you paid.
The first heavily regulated chemical industry in the US was the Electroplating industry, and there is a good reason for that. Here is an example. A guy ran a garage chrome-plating operation between 1960-1970 and ended up with an EPA Superfund (Odessa Chromium#1). It took until 1983 of legal proceedings (we are talking about million dollars of legal fees), and the cleanup process is still ongoing as of 2017, 20 acres of groundwater contaminated, and you can imagine the amount of taxpayer money poured into this operation.

This was a small-medium, time-protracted event. So nothing on the scale you are talking about and with less toxic chemicals. However, the authorities do not distinguish one from the other. If you incorrectly dispose of something hazardous, you are liable no matter what is in there, and how much.

So, what to do in this case?
The first thing to do is contacting waste management companies. If there is a high-school or a college in your area most probably they have a waste management company they use for their hazardous materials. Local government agencies usually do not deal with this stuff and their operators do not know the details of your operations and how to deal with hazmat. So go with specialized companies. Call them and explain the situation. Ask for quotes and regulations.
Many companies will not accept hazmat waste of certain categories from hobbyists because you are not licensed by regulatory agencies.
It might be expensive. In my lab disposing of a metal-ion acidic solution costs us 300$/gal. Hence waste reduction practices need to be in place.

Another thing you can try is calling the closest EPA office you can find. Maybe you have one in your county, or neighboring ones, or in the closest big city. They will tell you most of the things I've told you, but they might be lenient and say they do not care since the amounts you will be handling are insignificant. Remember, you will be talking to an operator. If they do tell you that, you will still be legally and penally responsible, should anything happen to the groundwater, aquifer, wells, creeks nearby you. Is it likely to happen? NO.
Can it happen? YES. Especially if by accident you spill copper and kill all the fishes in your neighbor's Koi-pond and he rats you out.

If your daughter is interested in doing plating for college-related activities (promoted by the educational institution, it seems), then they MUST provide a mean for waste disposal. If not they are misleading/endangering those students, and possibly putting them in a position of non-compliance with environmental regulations.

IMO, the best way will be to search for small businesses that do plating around your area, look for family-run businesses, small shops, one-man businesses, plating services for jewelers. They have the expertise, the equipment, and the means to take care of the waste. In addition, the small businesses of that kind are slowly disappearing, because of the cheap mass-produced stuff that comes from overseas. No more young people get involved with this, so they might be welcoming a one- two-times-a-week apprentice in their shop. Asking never hurts.

And here is the conundrum of legislation, or, as mentioned before, STATUTE.

Copper and Nickel compounds are commonly used in crops and pest control. For example, copper is used in the Bordeaux Mixture and in the Burgundy Mixture, which are Copper Hydroxocarbonate suspensions, used in agriculture as spray-on fungicide for vines (grapes, tomatoes). Nickel is always present in fertilizers, at low concentrations, since it is an essential element for plant metabolism. The Mouse ear of pecans is caused by nickel deficiency and is easily solved with a nickel-based foliar spray or adequate fertilization of the soil.
The funny thing about that? Both treatments are classified as "organic".

I hope I gave you some food for your thoughts.
My mission was not to scare either you or your daughter but to warn you of the potential risks associated with this. Caution is advised before undertaking this kind of endeavor.

Best,
Lorenzo

Lorenzo,

I know this was totally off topic, but folks here seem to be reliable and knowledgeable about many things. And certainly about chemistry!

I know baking soda has lots of uses, but it seemed to be too much to expect that it would neutralize these acetates and make them environmentally neutral!

The internet is a wealth of information, but not all of it is reliable, that is why I posed the question here in hopes we would get a reliable answer. We did!

Thank You!!! Your answer was very detailed and I very much appreciate that you took the time to be so detailed. Especially considering I misspelled nickel repeatedly! (In my defense we have a mule who is named Nickle, spelled that way.)

It is ironic how things are considered under the law and dealt with. There is a great deal of commercial farming where we live; row crops, vineyards and confined animal operations, so I know that there is a certain amount of copper and nickel used in our local environment. Some producers (including a county agency) use copper sulfate to keep certain water retention areas free of aquatic life. You can buy the copper sulfate at the local feed store. Having said that, we won't be adding to the local concentrations!

She checked with the local disposal agency because they have a sign that gives a number to call to arrange for hazardous disposal, though in hindsight it's likely this is geared toward pesticide and herbicide disposal. It had not occurred to her, or me, that we might need a specialist company.

In defense of the college, they didn't encourage or discourage her. They told her she would need to have a part she is working with for an antique item plated and they knew of no business in this part of the state that would do the work. She took it upon herself to investigate electroplating on her own. She wanted to double check the safety of engaging in such an endeavor before moving forward. She thought that disposal would be more involved than indicated by the ease of procuring the instructions or a kit, she was very right!

I will encourage her to call some plating companies that are in the state to see if one of them would accept the item and plate it. There are none closer than 1.5 hours, so I don't know if she will get to see if she could apprentice.

Thank you, again.

Anna

Anna,

you are more than welcome and do not worry about Nickle-Nickel. I come from Europe and there we spell things like Aluminum as Aluminium

I believe so, since you said that you were living in a rural area. This is one of the contradictions of environmental regulations, that apply only to a certain type of activity, most probably because of the sheer volumes they produce, but not to others. By extension, this forms an umbrella of regulations also on hobbyists, but without offering them methods of efficient disposal.

For what concerns the college your daughter studies at. I am glad that she is interested in such problems and interests! And she did good by worrying about the safety and hazmat waste disposal. Once you know that, you are ready to proceed and be responsible about it.

Another thing that I forgot, electroplating might not be as easy as it looks, the substrate requires special treatments in order for the plated metal to adhere and form a uniform film, and it can be tricky because it involves a number of parameters, including the concentrations, temperature, stirring, complexing agents, and of course voltage and current intensity. Having an expert person will not only help her in doing the right thing safety-wise, but also saving that part from mistakes, or ruining it completely, and probably saving money.

Let me know how that goes, I am really interested!
Best,
Lorenzo

You might check for motorcycle shops around you. Putting chrome on parts often starts with putting on nickel. The might be willing to just stop at step one.

Just in case you might not have thought of checking for custom motorcycle shops...

Lorenzo your posts are very well written and easy to understand!!!

Lorenzo,
Sorry for the delay. My daughter has an email out to the chemistry department at the college about the disposal issue, hopefully that will get her an answer that is helpful.

Upon further research, Chick has also come to the conclusion you mentioned; that it might not give her even coverage, but for different reasons than you mentioned. She has read that a non electric plating method (I cannot recall what she said it is) would more likely give her the coverage she is seeking, since this item is not smooth surfaced, it has holes and other indentations. It requires a different type of nickle solution....I am not sure what. But, if we can't get any help from the college I will ask the local high school what they have for disposal services, that way she can move ahead with experimenting.

She has been very diligent in researching this topic and she has found it extremely intriguing. So fascinating is it to her that she has decided she would like to take a chemistry class as her elective!

I will keep you posted as to how things are going.

Thanks again for all your help!
Anna

PS Aluminium is much more musical sounding than aluminum!

Brewer George,

Custom motorcycle shops had not even crossed my mind, thank you for the tip! We do have several of those within a reasonable distance. Chick also has a motorcycle enthusiast in one of her classes, he might be able to tell her what shop he uses and if they offer plating services.

Thanks again,
Anna