The best and safest ways to deal with unused paint

Are there half tins of paint in your shed? You’re not alone. We’ve all bought the wrong shade – maybe it took painting two whole walls of the downstairs loo in Mellow Wind before you could concede it wasn’t right. But what can you do with that unused paint?

Don’t bin it

If you’ve got old paint, binning it or pouring it down the drain will cause harm. Paint can contain chemicals harmful to health and the environment, so you need to be mindful of what you do with it.

Check out MyWaste.ie for a civic amenity site near you that accepts paint. Fingal County Council civic amenity sites at Swords and Coolmine for example will take household hazardous waste like paints, thinners and strippers for a €4 charge.

Paint it green

If you bought 15 litres of Elk’s Regret that you now loathe (who knew grey was so last decade?) then be decisive. Bringing paint for recycling before it goes hard or out of date will maximise the chances it can be used by someone else. Instead of languishing in your shed, your leftover paint could make someone else very happy.

Renew Enterprises is a Waterford city-based social enterprise that prepares leftover and unused paint for reuse.

“Just come in and pick your colours, we can actually make colours to order,” says Danny Murphy, chief executive of Treo Port Lairge which operates the enterprise. Renew Enterprises takes the paint that ends up in civic amenity centres, tests the quality and prepares it for reuse.

“We mightn’t have a colour exactly, but if you give us a week or two, we’ll have it for you,” says Murphy.

You can pick up a 5 litre bucket of high-quality, recycled paint for as little as €15. That can be a saving of about €45 on new paint.

“The paint we offer is of interest to people who want to stop stuff going into landfill and who want to recycle. The customers who come to us get cheap, reliable paint,” says Murphy.

Customers include households, primary schools, GAA clubs and the Probation Service, he says. “We’d be hoping the council would buy some of our paint for use on council properties,” says Murphy.

Renew Enterprises is part of the Paint Reuse Network, a collective of member organisations that are reducing paint waste in Ireland. Its members accept donations of unused paint, or collect it from civic amenity sites and prepare it for reuse. This reduces the amount of new paint that has to be manufactured, it saves quality paint from being dumped and it helps local communities. Check out paintreuse.network for a recycled paint seller near you.

Buying more?

Paint colour names can conjure up images of restful glades, delicate florals and pristine seas. The ingredients of some however are far from that.

Acrylic paint is made from petrochemicals and contains ingredients harmful to humans and the environment. These include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), gases that are released into the air from solvent-based paints and, in smaller amounts, from water-based formulas, says the Healthy Materials Lab, a Parsons School of Design research lab dedicated to environmentally-friendly design.

Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) in acrylic paint are suspected endocrine disruptors and can cause hormone dysfunction in people, animals, and sea life, according to the Healthy Materials Lab.

Acrylic paints contribute to the massive amount of microplastics that end up in the world’s waterways and have been found in the human bloodstream and breastmilk.

When buying paint, look for the VOC labeling – a globe symbol that shows VOCs emitted from minimal to very high. The European Ecolabel flower accreditation is another reliable indicator of low-level VOCs.

Paints made from minerals instead of fossil fuels are a better choice. Some even absorb impurities from the air, improving indoor air quality. Use an online paint calculator to avoid buying more than you need. If you have some leftover, tap the lid shut with a mallet to create an airtight seal. Mark it with the date opened, colour, brand and what room it’s for.