California Takes Steps to Reduce Hazardous Paint Dumping

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) released the following statement applauding the Governor’s signing of SB 1143 to expand PaintCare – California’s flagship extended producer responsibility (EPR) program for paint. “PaintCare has demonstrated its ability over the years to responsibly manage millions of gallons of unused paint on behalf of consumers,” said Senator Allen. “The success of their effort has relieved waste management costs on local governments and protected our environment from hazardous products. I appreciate the collaboration between the American Coatings Association and our environmental allies to remove limitations to this toxic waste management.”

Paint has become one of the largest sources of household hazardous waste (HHW). Roughly 850 million gallons of architectural paint are sold in the United States each year, and it is estimated that 10 percent of this, or 85 million gallons, go unused. Problematically, the toxicity of these products makes it particularly tricky for consumers and local governments to safely handle and dispose of these materials.

To address this, PaintCare launched in California in 2012 to bring stakeholders and manufacturers together to manage the reuse, recycling, and end-of-life care for hazardous paint. The program has since collected nearly 35 million gallons of paint through 795 year-round drop-off sites. Despite these successes, PaintCare’s full potential has been minimized by the limited products they currently collect. AB 1526 (Committee on Natural Resources) was signed into law last year to open their operations up to aerosol paint collection, and now SB 1143 fully expands PaintCare’s efforts to cover every type of paint available to consumers. This expansion effort was a joint push by environmental advocates and PaintCare operators, displaying the readiness and broad support of this EPR program.

“We are thrilled that the PaintCare expansion to include non-industrial coatings including arts and craft paint, furniture oil and paint, and other specialty paints and solvents passed this year! By passing it now, the expansion can be added to the existing aerosol paint regulation which is in process which will keep costs down and expedite implementation,” said Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director of the National Stewardship Action Council. “We appreciate PaintCare for working with us and being willing to accept the remaining paint products into the existing program Californians know and love.”

“We at Zero Waste Sonoma are very excited to know that all paint products will soon be covered in the same program we currently use and benefit from,” said Courtney Scott, Household Hazardous Waste Program Manager at Zero Waste Sonoma.  “The public wants recycling to be simple and convenient and having all paint and related products in the same program makes sense. It also makes dollars and cents for the County now that we will no longer have to fund paint product management through garbage rates and tipping fees. The PaintCare program is the best producer run program to date in California.”

SB 1143 will come into effect on January 1, 2025.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com