Paint

As well as a waste of paint and money, unwanted paint is an environmental and health issue. If paint is improperly stored or discarded, it can create fire risks, operational problems for landfills or contaminate water ways.

There are many ways you can prevent having unwanted or old paint. PaintWise lists helpful hints on how to deal with leftover paint, how to store paint properly and more details on the PaintWise service.

If you do have unwanted paint here are some ideas for dealing with it:

• donate unwanted paint to community groups, marae or schools.
• return unwanted paint for reuse or recycling to Resene PaintWise collection centres. Resene offer reusable paint to community groups, recycle packaging materials where possible, send solvent-based paints to solvent recovery depots, and offer water-based paints for covering graffiti.
• return unwanted paint for reuse to any Placemakers store or Reidpaints shop. Enviropaints remanufacture the unwanted paint into new paint where possible, recycle packaging materials and safely dispose of what can’t be recycled.
• donate unwanted paint to your council's resource recovery centre. Contact your local city or district council to find resource recovery centres in your area.
• deposit unwanted paint to council-run Hazmobile collection points (check with your local council first to find locations and see if they accept paint).

Note - Paint is easier to reuse the fresher it is, so it’s best to donate or return paint as soon as you discover you don’t need it, such as when you change your colour scheme, rather than holding onto it just in case.

If none of these options are available in your area, as a last resort it is better to ensure the paint is dry before throwing it out, rather than still liquid. Drying the paint prevents it damaging waste handling equipment and means fewer chemicals are leached out once it is landfilled.

If there is not much paint left, check with your local council if they will accept the container for recycling once the paint has dried. If not, or if there is a large amount of paint, add something like sawdust or kitty litter to help it dry out and then dispose of it with your rubbish. But remember – always try to reduce, reuse or recycle first!

Further details on the issues around paint are contained in this report on Unused/Unwanted Paint and Paint Packaging in New Zealand on the Ministry for the Environment’s website.