Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Recycling Paint From Old To New

When you think of using recycled paint, you get the picture of the last time you mixed paint together and got a really muddy gray. Recycled paint? you say. No way.


Recycled paint is now on the radar and shows just how times have changed. So, take a deep breath and remain open minded as you will soon see that the muddy gray you remember is no longer the only outcome, not at all.

The reason recycled paint has come to the front is because more than 74 million gallons of paint are sold in California alone, each year. That is a lot of paint, but the problem comes in because not all of it is used.

Paint is considered a hazardous waste and the leftover paint from your project either sits in your garage or you bring it to the HHW facilities (household hazardous waste) set up by your local government.

Because this collection program only receives a small amount of the leftover paint, it becomes very expensive to run. So a program that has proven to be successful in Oregon is being adopted for California.

Paint Care will take “architectural paint” which is defined as interior and exterior architectural coatings sold in 5 gallon containers or less for commercial and residential use. It does not include aerosols or paint purchased for industrial or equipment manufacturer use. http://www.usgbc-ncc.org/

Starting in July, the number of collection sites will increase with a goal in mind that you, the consumer can bring back your leftover paint to the store where you bought it.

That means no more stored leftover paint in your garage and gives the retailer a chance to become good product stewards by closing the loop.

Purchasing recycled paint

As manufacturers of recycled paint, Amazon and Visions Paint Recycling carefully inspect and sort the leftover paint that they receive before processing it. They are able to create a pretty stunning result of beautiful recycled paints available for purchase.

It’s a far cry from our failed efforts of muddled gray.  It’s really quite remarkable and about 25 percent less expensive, too!  Click here to see color charts.

Oh, and the leftover paint that they can’t recycle into new paint is put towards making a cement additive. The additive is used in place of shale, clay, limestone and other materials that would have otherwise been mined.