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Hello, Old Paint
Reducing the amount of waste entering the waste stream is a central goal
in the development of environmentally preferable purchasing. Purchase and
production of recycled materials can have a huge impact. For example,
paper and organic waste (food and yard clippings), both recyclable,
account for an amazing 80 percent of the material sent to landfills.
But convincing the public that a recycled product is as good as a newly
manufactured one often presents big challenges, as companies working to
create a market for recycled paint have discovered.
Seven hundred million gallons of paint are sold nationally every year. The
National Paint and Coatings Association estimates that 10 percent of
every gallon is left over and could be recycled. While
California’s paint recycling programs collected an impressive 2.1 million
gallons of leftover paint from households in fiscal year 2003-2004, this
represents only 28 percent of what could have been collected.
Leftover paint generally goes down a drain or into a landfill, or is
stockpiled in a garage or storage area. “Paint represents 35 percent of
all the household hazardous wastes that local governments collect and a
significant portion of the cost of running collection programs,” said
Glenn Gallagher, Integrated Waste Management Specialist with the
California Integrated Waste Management Board.
When local governments collect used oil and electronic waste, the two
biggest hazardous waste streams in
California,
they get paid from an advance recycling fee. But not so with paint.
"Currently, the cost of managing the collected leftover paint is almost $8
per gallon from the collection point to the end point of processing the
paint back into a usable commodity. Local government picks up most of that
cost," stated Gallagher.
The 2003-2004 data puts this cost at about $17 million per year, a figure
that could increase considerably if government managed to improve its 28
percent collection rate. However, Gallagher points out that “as the market
for recycled paint improves, the collected leftover paint will
eventually be picked up free of charge by recyclers who want to use it.”
Moreover, he says, “It is quite probable that at some point in the near
future the collection program might even be paid a small amount for the
paint." Thus, a vigorous market for recycled paint could transform a
considerable liability into a profit center.
What are the environmental benefits of recycled paint?
Dane Jones, professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at
California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo,
has spent the last 15 years developing a coatings and polymers program,
the only one of its kind west of the
Mississippi.
“In the last 30 years, paints have changed. They now use much smaller
amounts of organic solvents,
which can contribute to smog formation and can be harmful in municipal
waste streams,” he says. “Paints currently sold
for home use are primarily water-based and far less toxic than earlier
products.”
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