Did you know old latex paint can be recycled?
Many communities have drop off sites for old paints. Some communities even allow residents to take other people's discarded paint for free.
If you need to do some painting projects, and your budget is zero, you might call around to see if your municipality has a paint exchange program. Often, items such as cleaning supplies, motor oil, and so on are also free for the taking.
There are several ways paints can be "recycled". First, as mentioned above, you can use leftover paints from another project, straight out of the can. Another way to recycle paints is to mix bits of leftover paints into one container to create a new color. Lots of cities have programs that do this, often using the resulting paints to cover graffiti, and sometimes offering the mixed paints to local residents free of charge or for a small fee. Sometimes post-consumer paints are collected by a paint reprocessing company, where it is sorted by color family, filtered, and remixed. I've painted most of my fixer-upper condo with free leftover paint that I've mixed myself, using a five-gallon bucket and a stir stick.
Municipalities and paint recycling companies basically do the same thing I did, only on a larger scale. The resulting paints are usually low VOC paints, because most of the harmful VOCs have escaped during the recycling process. Here is an informative video of the recycling process used by Canada based Boomerang Paints.
Another company that recycles paint, Amazon Environmental, Inc., offers a lovely muted palette. Recycled or reprocessed post-consumer paint is usually mixed in very large batches, so customers can be sure to get enough of the color they need to complete a project. There is often some color variation between batches, but the variation is pretty minimal.
If your city does not accept leftover latex paint for recycling, some paint stores do. Most Habitat for Humanity stores will accept your paint, as well -- either to sell as it is, or to mix in larger batches for re-sale.
If you are planning a painting project and have a tight budget, or just want to tread a little more lightly, you might consider using recycled paint. You can mix your own from leftovers in the garage (be sure to only mix latex with latex), or you can pick up some cans from the local Habitat store or a local household hazardous waste center. Remember paint mixing in high school art class? The same concepts still apply, so with some planning, you can come up with some very nice colors. Or let the pros do the work for you -- here are some manufacturers of reblended and reprocessed paint:
Vermont, Local Color Paint
Kelly-Moore eCoat
Quebec, Boomerang
Alberta, EcoCoat
Amazon Environmental (available in over a dozen states)
California, Visions Paint Recycling
Oregon and Washington, MetroPaint
Many communities have drop off sites for old paints. Some communities even allow residents to take other people's discarded paint for free.
HHW facility. Photo: Megan Dobransky, Earth911.com
If you need to do some painting projects, and your budget is zero, you might call around to see if your municipality has a paint exchange program. Often, items such as cleaning supplies, motor oil, and so on are also free for the taking.
There are several ways paints can be "recycled". First, as mentioned above, you can use leftover paints from another project, straight out of the can. Another way to recycle paints is to mix bits of leftover paints into one container to create a new color. Lots of cities have programs that do this, often using the resulting paints to cover graffiti, and sometimes offering the mixed paints to local residents free of charge or for a small fee. Sometimes post-consumer paints are collected by a paint reprocessing company, where it is sorted by color family, filtered, and remixed. I've painted most of my fixer-upper condo with free leftover paint that I've mixed myself, using a five-gallon bucket and a stir stick.
Check out these beautiful colors available through Metro Paint
in the Pacific Northwest! Would you ever guess this is the result
of paint recycling?
Another company that recycles paint, Amazon Environmental, Inc., offers a lovely muted palette. Recycled or reprocessed post-consumer paint is usually mixed in very large batches, so customers can be sure to get enough of the color they need to complete a project. There is often some color variation between batches, but the variation is pretty minimal.
If your city does not accept leftover latex paint for recycling, some paint stores do. Most Habitat for Humanity stores will accept your paint, as well -- either to sell as it is, or to mix in larger batches for re-sale.
Calibre Environmental recycled paint colors.
If you are planning a painting project and have a tight budget, or just want to tread a little more lightly, you might consider using recycled paint. You can mix your own from leftovers in the garage (be sure to only mix latex with latex), or you can pick up some cans from the local Habitat store or a local household hazardous waste center. Remember paint mixing in high school art class? The same concepts still apply, so with some planning, you can come up with some very nice colors. Or let the pros do the work for you -- here are some manufacturers of reblended and reprocessed paint:
Vermont, Local Color Paint
Kelly-Moore eCoat
Quebec, Boomerang
Alberta, EcoCoat
Amazon Environmental (available in over a dozen states)
California, Visions Paint Recycling
Oregon and Washington, MetroPaint
I hope you've found this information useful -- if you know of some paint recycling links that I've missed, please feel free to leave the links in the comments section. Happy painting!
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