You’ve finished your big painting job but you overestimated the amount of paint you’d need and now you have 4 gallons you’ll never use. Or perhaps you have a shelf in the garage that’s given over to storing paint cans of all colors and sizes. You don’t need the paint, but you could really use the space. What do you do?
Give your paint to PaintCare, a new paint recycling operation with 20 sites in Clark County where households and businesses can drop off up to 5 gallons of leftover paint, stain and varnish. This replaces the county’s Paint Take Back program, instituted in 2005.
Drop-off locations for paint recycling can be found at www.paintcare.org/drop-off-sites, where you’ll also find 150 paint collection sites all over Washington. Most locations accept both latex and oil-based architectural paint, which must be donated in original containers with the original manufacturers’ labels.
A list of all acceptable products can be found at www.paintcare.org.
Call ahead to confirm the amount and types of paint you want to recycle. Businesses or individuals with 100 gallons of paint to donate can ask for free pickup from their location. Some businesses are also subject to additional regulations; visit the website to check before dropping off or scheduling a pickup.
Paint can be recycled for free because PaintCare is funded by a small fee on the sale of new paint: 45 cents for just over half a pint to just under 1 gallon, 95 cents for 1 gallon up to 2 gallons, and $1.95 for larger than 2 gallons up to 5 gallons. There’s no fee on paint sold in containers of half a pint or smaller.
The Washington State Department of Ecology selected PaintCare to recycle the state’s leftover paint in accordance with Gov. Jay Inslee’s 2019 paint stewardship law, which ensures that paint producers, sellers and buyers work together to handle the product responsibly and sustainably. PaintCare has so far collected 46 million gallons of paint in 9 states and the District of Columbia.
