It is well known that a characteristic of silver-halide photography is its dependence on water. However, less is known about whether and how the photographic industry has handled wastewater.This article examines the industrial treatment of wastewater by looking at the early history of Cibachrome colour photographic materials, marketed by Swiss chemical company Ciba from the mid-1960s. The author shows that Ciba classified Cibachrome wastewater as toxic and explains the reasons for this, reconstructing the way in which–uniting economic interests, scientific expertise and water protection standards – it attempted to reduce this toxicity using wastewater treatment techniques, partly with the aim of appearing to be an environmentally-friendly company.