Used Paint Recycling
Californians Against Waste successfully sponsored AB 1343 (Huffman) to bring the successful PaintCare program to California in 2012. California was the second state to join PaintCare, and since that time a handful of other states have joined, including Colorado, Minnesota and Vermont.
A collaboration between communities and businesses, PaintCare offers over 700 paint drop-off locations throughout the state where local residents can drop off their unused paint for free. From there, the paint is repackaged or recycled into new paint, reducing the need for the environmentally harmful process of creating new paint.
Often times, consumers buy much more paint than they need. Paint contains toxic chemicals that harm the environment if disposed of improperly. If paint is dumped down drains or thrown into the trash, it can seep into a community's water supply and pollute rivers and lakes.
Before 2012, local governments struggled to provide drop-off locations for used paint, which, at 2 million gallons per year, makes up the largest source of household hazardous waste in California. Now, following the model of producer stewardship, businesses that sell paint pay a small fee into a paint recycling fund for every can of paint they sell. Those same businesses also take on the responsibility of becoming PaintCare drop-off locations.
Click Here for more information from PaintCare, including informational brochures in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Russian.
- Find a Paint Dropoff Site near you or call (855) 724-6809.
- Subscribe to CalRecycle’s Paint Product Stewardship Listserv