Leftover Paint? Don't Trash It

On Wednesday, April 13, State Sen. Edward Meyer (D), who represents Durham and Killingworth, led Senate passage of a bill that creates a ‘paint stewardship’ program that would allow consumers to return unused latex or oil-based paint to the point of purchase or similar location, allowing it to be kept out of the waste stream and recycled, reused or disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

“This program should help reduce the amount of paint that is currently making its way into our waste stream and landfills,” said Meyer, who is Senate Chairman of the Environment Committee.

The bill passed the Senate this afternoon on a unanimous and bipartisan ‘consent’ vote; it originally passed the Environment Committee on March 9 with a unanimous and bipartisan vote as well. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.

If signed into law, effective March 1, 2013 the paint stewardship program would apply to unused and unwanted interior or exterior paint sold in the state in containers of five gallons or less. The program would be funded through an assessment on each container of architectural paint sold in Connecticut.

Under the bill, the stewardship program would manage postconsumer paint by (1) reducing its generation; (2) promoting reuse and recycling; and (3) negotiating and executing agreements to collect, transport, reuse, recycle, burn for energy recovery, and dispose of postconsumer paint through “environmentally sound management practices.”

At its February 9 public hearing, several municipal officers and environmental advocates spoke in favor of the bill, noting that cities and towns spent over $600,000 in 2008 disposing of oil-based paint that was brought to one of several hazardous household waste collection events held around the state.  Oil-based paint typically accounts for 30 to 50 percent of the waste brought to such events, officials testified.