Residents and businesses across the state of New York will soon be able to recycle their unwanted paint thanks to a new law that was recently approved by the New York State Legislature and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
According to the NY Product Stewardship Council (NYPSC), more than 2 million gal (7.6 million L) of paint will be recycled annually under an industry-managed paint recovery and recycling program.
NYPSC is constituted primarily of representatives of local government agencies, together with representatives of other stakeholder groups that support the product stewardship approach. These include state solid waste officials, businesses, recyclers, and the environmental community.
According to NYPSC officials, most unwanted paint—such as protective coatings—is currently disposed of in landfills or waste-to-energy facilities. The new program is designed to create recycling sector jobs involved in the reprocessing of millions of gallons of paint for reuse and recycling, all while reducing the financial burden of waste management that local governments shoulder.
In New York, NYPSC says there was “strong bi-partisan support” for the measure.
The program is anticipated to go into effect in early 2021, with hundreds of drop-off locations available throughout the state. There will be no cost to residents and businesses when dropping off their unwanted paint for recycling, with funding to run the program included in the cost of new paint.
New York is the 10th U.S. state (in addition to the District of Columbia) to adopt such a program, which will be managed by PaintCare, a nonprofit organization created by the paint industry through the American Coatings Association (ACA) (Washington, DC, USA). Other states that have enacted similar legislation over the past several years are Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Washington, and Vermont.
“We look forward to building on our 10 years of experience in other states to launch a program in New York that not only works for the paint industry, but also meets public demand for convenience, efficiency, and cost effectiveness," says Heidi McAuliffe, the ACA’s vice president of government affairs.
To date, PaintCare has processed more than 38 million gal (143.8 million L) of paint, according to ACA, with more than 1,700 voluntary collection sites.
Source: ACA, www.paint.org.