How to Dispose of Old Paint
If you are like most people, you have a bunch of old paint cans in your garage or basement. And you are probably wondering how to get rid of them. How do you dispose of this paint safely and legally?
If you have nearly full cans of paint, you can purchase packets of "Waste Paint Hardener" from your local paint store (or myperfectcolor.com). One packet of this product will harden 3/4-full gallon of paint. Once the paint has hardened you should be able to dispose of it in your local trash pick-up. If the paint cans are nearly empty, just put them in your garage and leave the lids off for a few days and then throw them away.
Most municipalities will accept dried water-based paint in the regular trash pick-up. Wet water-based paint will not be accepted, and neither are oil-based paints (wet or dry). Most municipalities offer some sort of hazardous waste disposal. Normally there are one or more days per year where residents can drop off old paint. Check with your specific municipality for your local rules.
Labels: old paint, paint disposal, paint in the trash, waste paint
posted by Jason @ 3:39 AM
3 Comments:
Can I recommend that people dispose of paint (and any usable items) by donating them, so that they don't end up in landfills? An easy way to do this in most communities is through freecycle.org, or in your local classified ads. Some communities may even have a program that will pick up paint for use by volunteers in community beautification projects. The paint either gets mixed all together in a big vat at the public works department (ever wonder why park benches and bus shelters are odd shades of brown?) or gets sorted for projects such as kids painting murals in the community. Please, recommend that people keep items out of landfills when they can. The planet thanks you.
Thank you for your great comment Eeka. Because of your comments we decided to do something. Stay tuned. I think you'll like it. -Jason
We are in the beta stage of our new website http://reusepaint.com/
It is a free website designed to be a resource for people interested in sharing, reusing, donating or responsibly disposing of old paint.
The site contains a forum, marketplace and a directory.
For example, if you've ever bought a few gallons of paint you never used and it is sitting in your basement, then you could add it to the marketplace and see if anyone else wants it, or you could look up a nearby charity that accepts paint donations in the directory.
Right now there isn't any content and we are looking for help in filling the website with useful information. I would also love any feedback for improving it.
We need people to post questions in the forum, add items to the marketplace and fill in the directory with useful information.
If you have a spare moment or two, please check it out and add some info. Thanks so much for your help.
-Jason
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