Wendall Waters, wickedlocal.com, June 3,2022
A woman-owned paint recycling business in (Hanover) Massachusetts has, over the course of a decade, gone from garage-scale production to having a small batch be 300 gallons.
RECOLOR is part of a growing movement to keep paint out of landfills and create local economic opportunities. If new legislation sitting in the House Ways and Means Committee is passed, they say, it would be a win-win.
The current thinking in Massachusetts is that if you have leftover latex paint, you should let it dry out and then throw the paint and its container into the trash. PaintCare, which is run by the American Coatings Association (ACA), is a program to get that paint reused, re-manufactured or recycled in some way, rather than letting it dry up and go to waste.Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont are among the states that have adopted the program. The Massachusetts legislation doesn’t name PaintCare specifically, but would create the infrastructure for a paint stewardship program.
RECOLOR Founder and Chief Environmental Officer Tania Keeble said it will be even better for the environment and local economies if the re-processing of post-consumer paint stays in-state. Paint is heavy, she said, and the shipping is expensive and comes with environmental costs. More