It\u2019s a rare household that does not have a rusting tin of paint sitting around in a dark cupboard somewhere. About 55m litres of paint go to waste in the UK every year, which is why one organisation is trying to create a circular paint economy by recycling it.<\/p>\n
Community RePaint<\/a> is a UK-wide paint reuse network that collects leftover paint from drop-off points and redistributes it to individuals and groups in the community. They started in 1992 as a research project in Leeds called the Waste Wagon, led by a consortium of waste and recycling organisations and set up in response to concern from the local authority about the high cost of paint disposal and issues around household hazardous waste. The goal was to find out how many homes had paint to dispose of, and how much.<\/p>\n Researchers went out to knock on doors, and according to David Squire, Community RePaint\u2019s community network coordinator, they found that \u201con average, 17 tins of paint were sitting there unused\u201d. So they decided they would collect it. A year later, the pilot project for Community RePaint was set up, and three decades later, 100 people staff the UK-wide network.<\/p>\n Staff from the Cambridgeshire branch of Community RePaint. Photograph: Dulux \/ Community RePaint<\/p>\n Growth is gentle, but now \u201cbusinesses have started to reuse paint in the community\u201d, says Squire. The organisation is bringing recycling centres on board, a critical node in the paint-gathering network.<\/p>\n One by one, barriers are being broken down. For example, many local councils do not accept liquid paint for recycling because it is considered hazardous. Although this is done, in principle, to protect the environment, it actually increases the likelihood of people leaving their leftover paint to waste. Community RePaint wants councils to see accepting paint as a \u201cwin-win\u201d situation. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to change more councils to accept surplus paint \u2026 it saves council money as reuse is far cheaper than disposal.\u201d<\/p>\n For the past decade, Community RePaint have sold their own brand, WeColour, which is made up of 97% recycled paint, made by separating the collected paint and remixing it. It\u2019s currently the cheapest paint you can buy in the UK while, Squire says, \u201cstill having the good quality of major brands\u201d.<\/p>\n They sell to schools, gardeners and community-led projects in particular. The network recently supported the pollinator pathway project<\/a> in Bristol and a forest recycling project<\/a> in east London.<\/p>\n