The latest from the Paintcare Project.
The interim report from the recent Paintcare meeting (available in our Members' Forum- sign in to read it) laid out the progress made in the project which aims to solve the problem of leftover paint, both for local authorities and householders.
55 million litres of leftover decorative paint is generated in the UK each year. When disposed of, most of it finds its way into the domestic waste stream, goes into landfill via black bags, or in some cases gets separated out and incinerated as hazardous waste at considerable cost to local authorities as the public have limited means to dispose leftover paint. One of the main challenges, is that only one in three Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) is accepting paint for reuse or remanufacture, making it challenging for the public to dispose of leftover paint. An additional challenge in stimulating remanufacture and reuse is in creating a market to absorb the nearly 20 million litres of leftover paint suitable for reuse and remanufacturing, which is much more cost effective than incineration.
42 organisations have so far signed up the Paintcare voluntary commitment. The initial aim to to develop a sustainable business model is still in progress (the problems are explored further on). As a consequence the major national education campaign to the public, to help raise awareness of paint recycling is still in the pipleline. However, smaller scale educational campaigns have been launched encouraging and advising consumers how to buy the correct amount of paint for the job and help reduce the total amount of leftover paint in the UK.
On the subject of the actual disposal/recycling of the 14,000 tonnes of waste paint packaging in the UK that is generated each year; there are challenges in finding the technology to clean plastic paint packaging to the required spec for recycling, and also in establishing an economic model for plastic paint packaging (polypropylene) recycling.
So, what is to happen to all that leftover paint which is not suitable for re-use or remanufacture? A pilot project is in the early stages in Leeds with a paint reuse organisation called Seagull Reuse whereby the residual paint will be used as a raw material (functioning as a plasticiser) in non lead-bearing concrete. Watch this space for more on this interesting project.
Manufacturers
How to avoid creating leftover paint
Manufacturers and retailers have developed a variety of paint calculators to help consumers figure out how much paint is needed for a job before they buy - these calculators are on the Paintcare website. They are featuring on digital campaigns and on social media and the trade press.
Confidence in the product
Public confidence in the outcoming reusable paint product is key to the business model - so a group of technical paints industry experts have been gathered together to assist in creating a quality protocol for reusers and remmanufacturers - this is expected to be finalised in early 2017.
The Government
VAT - Several social enterprises have a working model for reusing and remanufacturing leftover paint, but these depend on the good will of local authorities to pay social enterprises to make better use of leftover paint and in several cases financial support from paint manufacturers. Nearly all paint remanufacturing and reuse organisations employ volunteer labour, which has an additional benefit to society. The BCF has been meeting with MPs from different parties to discuss the likelihood of exempting these social enterprises from paying VAT - there are certain barriers because of EU regulations. However, this could change following the UK’s departure from the EU.
Market Stimulation
Several remanufacturers (Castle Repaint in Scotland and Green Farm Paints in England) have gone out of business due to the lack of demand for remanufactured paints. The BCF has met with the Crown Commercial Service to discuss furthering this cause and changing government procurement rules relating to buying paint with a recycled content for government paint contracts, but no tangible progress has been made.
Support for REACH regulation article 2.7 (d) applying to leftover paint
Paint remanufacture is limited to water based paints, which don't contain any substances of very high concern (SVHCs) under REACH. It is impossible to know the exact composition of a remanufactured paint, so the BCF’s working group is calling on a pragmatic interpretation of the REACH regulation article 2.7 (d) by Defra, which was agreed in principle by Defra. BCF members have created an inventory of raw materials used in water based paints and no paints in the last 10 years include any SVHCs. The assumption is that article 2.7(d) applies so long as the source paint is less than 10 years old because then the original source material is REACH compliant.
It is concluded that more proactiveness is required from government to move us on from the current recycling and reuse rate of 2% - especially in the areas of paint procurement rules to include remanufactured paint and expanding the HWRC network and supporting the allied social enterprises. The paint industry has invested several hundred thousand pounds in supporting and promoting reuse but government help is needed to try and find alternative funding mechanisms to enable the Paintcare recommendations for the model to work economically.
Local Government
LAs should promote a consistent guidelines for the disposal of leftover paint - because at the moment only 1 in 3 HWRCs accept it and only 1 in 10 have an affiliation with a remanufacturing organisation (Like community repaint). WRAP have helped develop a locator tool for the public to find out which HWRCs accept leftover paint in liquid form. See www.paintcare.org.uk . But most householders in the country are left with the official guidance which is to mix leftover paint with cat litter or sand to solidify it and put it in the waste bin headed for landfill or incineration. This means leftover paint stays at the lower end of the waste hierarchy - and in fact research shows only 1% of householders are prepared to do this so it mostly ends up (eventually after mouldering for years in the shed) being dumped, in liquid for in its tin, in the general waste. It is no mean consideration that HWRCs accepting liquid paint are faced with high disposal costs (£500 per tonne) compared to landfill (£100 per tonne). BCF research found that this was the main driver for HWRCs to not accept paint, combined with a lack of space. When an HWRC links to a paint reuse organisation, costs will be less than incineration, but still higher than landfill. This needs to be further explored with DEFRA with the aim of encouraging all HWRCs to accept paint.
The BCF is seeking more dialogue with DEFRA to address the outstanding issues detailed above and, with the business model in mind, the aim of enabling the use of landfill taxes to support social enterprises charities or community based groups committed to establishing paint re-use and recovery to grow from 0.5 million litres to 3 million litres by 2020.
Still lots to do then! But in the meantime, we could all aim to get our messages consistent across the board using the calculator and location tools mentioned earlier.
Log in to the members area to read the interim report in full and to look at the document A Circular Economy for Leftover paint. Both are located in the Meetings Reports area in the Members Forum.
