Products

Paint and Product Stewardship

The Northwest Product Stewardship Council's Paint Subcommittee is working with paint manufacturers, distributors, retailers, local governments, and others to find solutions to managing the large volumes of leftover paint that are being disposed or stored in peoples homes and garages.

What is the Problem?

Large Volumes

For the year 2000, an estimated that 64 million gallons of leftover consumer paint was generated in the United States. The most recent data from Washington State (2005) show approximately 693,000 gallons of leftover paint was collected at local government Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) facilities. Paint is the second largest waste stream, behind used oil, collected at HHW facilities in Washington State. The figures above include both latex and oil-based paint.

Cost

For many local governments, the cost of managing leftover paint is typically the largest part of its HHW budget. The Paint Product Stewardship Initiative (PPSI) has estimated the cost for local governments to manage leftover consumer paint averages approximately $8 per gallon. Using this estimate, local governments spent $5.5 million in 2005, or 89 cents for every person in the state to recycle paint.

In areas where local recycling facilities are not available, the cost to ship leftover paint may be too high for some local governments to sustain such a program. Some local governments ship their leftover paints to Oregon or California for recycling. Due to the high cost of managing leftover paint, some local governments have decided to not accept latex paints. Latex paint is not hazardous but should be solidified before disposal in the garbage when recycling is not available.

Wasted Resources

Latex paint makes up approximately 70-80% of leftover paint. Leftover paint is a resource that still has value when made into recycled-content paint (RCP). By using RCP, the raw materials needed to produce virgin paints would not need to be extracted and the energy required to extract those materials and manufacture new paint would not need to be used.

Environmental and Human Health Effects

Oil-based paints are highly toxic to the environment. They can harm fish and wildlife and can pollute groundwater if dumped on the ground. Paints can also have adverse health effects if not used properly. If used in closed areas, volatile organic compounds can irritate eyes, skin, and lungs and cause headaches and nausea. They can also contribute to asthma, other respiratory problems, muscle weakness, and liver and kidney damage. Today's latext paint is generally not considered hazardous. Latex paint brushes and applicators can be cleaned in the sink, but excess paint should not be poured down the drain.

The Product Stewardship Solution

Paint manufacturers and retailers are using product stewardship principles to design and market their products to create minimal impact on the environment and to reduce wasted paint during and after the life of the product. Manufacturers, retailers, and others can make a difference through:

Education

Manufacturers and retailers can better educate the public on the importance of purchasing only what is needed for a painting project to reduce the amount of leftover paint that must be managed. The PPSI stakeholder group has examined how to do this more effectively.

Design

Encourage more manufacturers to produce small packets of sample size paints rather than the most common pint size, seen in most retail locations. This would also reduce the amount of leftover paint to be managed. Continue moving away from oil-based paints to latex for improved ecosystem and human health. Further reduce the VOC content of paints to the extent feasible.

Product Take Back

Manufacturers and retailers, along with current public infrastructure and other community members, provide take-back locations for leftover paint.

Recycling and Conserving Resources

Make recycling of leftover paint the top priority for its end-of-life management. This would reduce the amount of raw materials and energy needed for the manufacturing of new paint.

Promoting the Recycled Content Paint (RCP) Quality Assurance Standard

To encourage and promote the recycling of leftover paint, consumers have to be confident in the paint’s performance. The Paint Product Stewardship Initiative group has been instrumental in funding the creation of a new recycled-paint standard, know as the Green Seal Environmental Standard for Recycled-Content Latex Paint: GS-43 (PDF file, 43KB). Use of this specification should be broadly promoted by all professional and institutional paint purchasers as well as paint retailers and manufacturers.

Legislation

Support legislation which includes product stewardship solutions that address anti-trust and related issues that enable the PPSI national product stewardship solutions.

Market Development

Manufacturers and retailers advertise and sell recycled paint in their retail stores. To effectively close the loop on recycling paint, there needs to be significant market demand for the end product at an average price that supports the recycling system plus reasonable profit.

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