Abstract: A method and machine for recovering silver and polyester from exposed photographic X-ray film of the type having a polyester base coated with a sheath of polyvinyladine chloride and a photosensitive silver emulsion. Sheets of the film are fed through baths of hot caustic which successively remove the silver emulsion and deposit it as a sludge from which the silver is recovered and remove the polyvinyladine coating to permit the polyester to be recovered in a commercially acceptable pure form. Where the film sheets may include some acetate based film, the apparatus will distinguish between the polyester and acetate and discard the acetate bases as scrap, after the silver emulsion has been removed.