No one wants to be a fool when it comes to disposing of hazardous household products, but it's also not the sort of task that takes precedence on the "to do" list. As we prepare for our upcoming move, we're faced with a plethora of neglected, half-used paint cans stacked and forgotten in a back closet. Like us, these orphans of past painting projects have to find a new home, but where?
After researching options for re-using, recycling and disposing of old paint, we came up with these "good" ways to rid ourselves of unused paint:
1. Donate usable paint to a church, school or your local Habitat for Humanity.
2. Participate in a materials exchange program like the one in LA County (we love this concept).
3. Dispose of latex paint in your garbage can, but follow the rules. The paint must be dried out and the lid must be removed before throwing away a paint can. Mostly empty cans can be left in the sun to dry and half empty cans can be dried out by mixing in kitty litter!
4. Recycle paint and dispose of aerosol paint cans at your local household hazardous waste center. We took a field trip to the Austin HHW facility and discovered that the process is actually very easy (educational too!)
Did you know that . . .?
- Oil based paint is good for up to 15 years and latex is usable if it is less than 10 years old.
- If paint mixes when stirred and has no lumps when painted on newspaper, it's good to go.
- Usable latex paint is recycled into either white or beige only (a mix of every other color).
- Spray paint cans are incinerated and empty paint cans are recycled at the HHW center, but you can't put paint cans in your curbside recycling bin.
What is your experience with recycling paint in your town? Do you have any other safe, smart ideas for getting rid of old paint?
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You covered them for my town.
I will say, when we moved, we left the usable paint for the new owners for touch-up. Probably kind of a cop-out since they probably changed colors at some point, but in the meantime, they were good to go for new scuffs from moving in, etc.
I also like the idea of partial cans of the same brand of latex (and even maybe crossing brands) to get new colors, particularly for spaces that need to be sealed cleanly but where the particular color might not be too important. (storerooms, closets, garages, etc.) I don't think you are only getting "white or beige", though -- if you mix eggplant and aqua, for instance, the resulting color won't be those!
I'm kind of a paint junkie. Picking up $5 mismatched cans thinking I could use that color someday. My husband had enough so I went through them and saved only my favorite 10 or so cans. Had a garage sale and sold/gave away the rest.
Good tips, Misty! Thanks.
My son's preschool accepts paint donations of any color, and we use them to spruce up the school. It has made for some interesting color combos, but mostly it has all worked out really well.
Thanks for that! I've got about 10 cans in my place. I was getting tired of looking at them.
Portland, OR: http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=24267
Sacramento, CA: http://www.msa2.saccounty.net/wmr/Pages/HazardousWasteDropoffCenters.aspx
About recycling the colored paint to make beige. . . that is what the worker at the HHW facility told me. I watched him dump random colors in one big bucket and somehow they all blended to a beige. To be fair, probably most of the non-white paint colors they receive are probably neutral anyway. I don't imagine they get alot of really bright colors and when they do the the off one, it probably gets lost in the sea of beige.
I just thought it was interesting that they only make white or beige paint, because I assumed there would be other weird colors too!
In our city, Habitat for Humanity doesn't accept used paint. We donate ours to a place called the Mad Houzers who build geurilla style shacks for homeless people.
I recycle paint at the local Ace Hardware store. I read somewhere that folks tend to buy more paint then needed for a paint job. Good idea to use a Paint Calculator to figure out how much paint is needed so there isn't tons left over.
I have two cans of paint in my car, they've been there for over 2 months. I keep saying that I am going to take them to the Hazardous Waste site at UCLA, but their hours are so strange I'm never available!!
Well, at least they are in my car, not sitting at our place. yuck!
When you pour kitty litter into paint, all you're doing is sucking up all the water. The latex, pigment, etc is still there and is being thrown away into landfills.
A lot of community theaters would love to get neutral colors for base coating, as long as there is a decent amount and not starting to rot. It never hurts and you may even get free tickets for your efforts.
"I read somewhere that folks tend to buy more paint then needed for a paint job."
It's true that folks often buy too much - and there's a reason for that.
A quart is rarely sufficient for a project, but two quarts cost more than a gallon...
I love Craigslist for this kind of stuff. When we moved into our house a year ago, there were 13 (YES 13!!!) semi-empty cans of paint in the basement, along with random building material leftovers. I put an ad on Craigslist, put the items by the curb with a "FREE" sign, and they were gone before sunset.
People always want free stuff, and if you live in the city, just putting them on the curb with a sign will take care of any unwanted items!
In LA, the best place to donate is for graffiti over-painting. For people who live in gang-infested neighborhoods, paint goes fast.
why is there a kitty litter container in the photo? am i missing something?
Jennaelliott -- We mixed kitty litter into the paint to dry it out, based on suggestions from on-line resources. If you have to throw your paint away in the garbage, they will not pick up wet paint or paint cans with the lids on. Honestly, that was the first time we ever bought kitty litter since we don't even have a cat!
craigslist all the way. i've never had to throw out paint, always just posted it on craigslist and gotten people to come get it. in fact, i even recently was able to give away half-empty sample sizes of paint that i had bought and decided not to use. there's always a creative person out there looking for free materials.