Hi Everyone,

A lot of Paint Doctor clients have responded positively to my recent posts about paint storage, disposal and recycling. And, in particular, many of you have asked to learn more about paint recycling.

These are the steps in paint recycling, according to Supereco:

  1. Paint turned in for recycling gets screened. Many local recyclers use swap or exchange programs to simply find a need for your old paint. It’ll get reused as is.
  2. Paint not reused directly can be consolidated based on color. The resulting paint often is then sold for use in applications like community graffiti covering.
  3. New paint can be made from your recycled paint—it’s mixed with new materials, adjusted for vicosity and pigment, and then sold all over again as new.
  4. Latex paint can be used in bulk to help create entirely new materials like concrete blocks and pigment additives.

And, there you have it. What’s old becomes new again.

Atlanta Paint Disposal, which offers pickup service to homeowners and commercial businesses that might have leftover paint in office buildings and storage room, has recycled nearly 10,000 gallons of paint in just the first six months the company has been open. Assuming that one gallon of paint covers 100 square feet of wall, and that the average house has 2,000 square feet of wall to cover, then each house needs 20 gallons of paint. That means Atlanta Paint Disposal has recycled roughly enough paint to do 500 homes! Also, the company has donated recycled paint to Atlanta-area not for profits to help them fight graffiti. If you’d like to do your part and recycle your leftover or old paint, contact Atlanta Paint Disposal to learn more about pricing and policies.

You can also organize paint recycle days with Atlanta Paint Disposal:

  • You can get your entire community involved and host a paint collection day for your residents. Atlanta Paint Disposal can handle collection logistics so that you can organize the event as a fundraiser for a program or offer it in addition to other recycling programs.
  • Atlanta Paint Disposal also offers collection programs to large corporations whose employees want to recycle.

If you have any questions about how to recycle anything, your best bet is to visit Earth911, which has information about where to recycle just about anything.