Paint Recycling Begins October 1

Do you have old paint cans sitting in your garage? Want to get rid of them? Well, if you are a Simsbury resident and have a valid permit for the bulky waste/recycling facility in town, now you can. For free.

The Simsbury Board of Selectmen voted at its meeting on September 8, 2104 to enter into a two-year agreement with PaintCare, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, for the collection of paints, primers and stains from the town’s Bulky Waste/Recycling Facility, 74 Wolcott Road, in accordance with the State of Connecticut’s Paint Stewardship Program.

The free service begins October 1, 2014. Paine’s, Inc. has agreed to participate in the program at no cost to the town. Accepted will be house paint and primers, stains, sealers, and clear coatings (e.g., shellac and varnish). The products must be in their original containers that are no larger than 5 gallons in size.

Paint must be in its original container and the container must have a label and a secured lid. Open or leaking cans are not accepted. And before you write off that can that was used to paint the kitchen when you first moved in decades ago, old paint – even if it is 30 years old – is accepted. Do not mix paints together.

The program is funded by the “PaintCare Recovery Fee” which is added to the purchase price of paint sold. These fees are paid to PaintCare by paint manufacturers, then passed down to retailers and to their customers.

And the best part? It almost all gets recycled. Most of the latex paint is sent to recycling companies and reprocessed into new paint in standard pre-tinted colors.  About 1-2 percent of the paint is simply reused and most of the oil-based paint is taken to a cement plant where it is blended into a fuel and burned to recover the energy value. Less than 5 percent of the paint is sent to a landfill.