PaintCare stewardship programme getting closer

PaintCare stewardship programme getting closer Steve Snaith BCF PaintCare Consultant

The first half of 2021 has seen significant progress with PaintCare, the paint industry’s national voluntary product stewardship programme which will revolutionise how leftover paint is managed in the UK. The goal is to increase the amount of leftover paint reused, recycled or remanufactured from 2% today to over 50%, create over 100 new jobs and save local Government over £20m every year.

In March, BCF conducted market research with consumers and decorators, which showed very high levels of support for PaintCare. Over 80% of respondents supported the concept and were willing to pay an additional ‘eco fee’ on new paint purchases if they knew that leftover paint would be collected and recycled. There was also a keen interest in using and purchasing remanufactured paint, assuming the quality could be assured. Based on this really positive research, in April the BCF’s Decorative Coatings Council gave the green light to the BCF team to start talks with retailers, merchants and decorator’s associations. At time of printing, the talks that have been had so far are very encouraging, with strong positive support to help make the PaintCare programme a reality. It is likely that BCF will be putting a formal proposal to the Government in the Autumn to ask for official support and approval of PaintCare as a national industry led, voluntary scheme to manage leftover paint in the UK.

PaintCare is expected to result in over one hundred new jobs for the UK economy, with the setting up of new remanufacturing plants across the UK. The scheme will also save local authorities at least £20m in costs of disposing of leftover paint and will reduce the amount of paint landfilled or incinerated by over 50,000 tonnes per year. The PaintCare scheme would result in almost 50% more leftover paint being reused, recycled or remanufactured.

Our ambition

1 To significantly reduce the environmental impact of leftover paint by diverting it from disposal in landfill or incineration into reuse and remanufacture into quality paint or use as a valuable raw material in other product streams e.g. concrete 2 A national collection network for consumers and trade 3 A national network of paint remanufacturers 4 Develop new routes to recycle non-remanufacturable leftover paint into other supply chains 5 National promotion of the PaintCare scheme to the public and trade 6 A UK market for remanufactured paint

Consumers and the trade will be encouraged to bring leftover paint back to nominated Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) and retail/trade outlets where it will be collected and transported to paint remanufacturers where it will be sorted and remanufactured into good quality paint.

PaintCare UK will be responsible for: • Negotiating with Household Waste Recycling Centres/Local Authorities and retail/ trade outlets for collection of leftover paints • Placing contracts for removal and treatment of the collected paint • Compliance with the scheme • Determination of the types of paint acceptable for inclusion on the scheme • Marketing communications to consumers/trade • Funding for research and development to new uses of leftover paint • Communication with national and local Government, retailers, wholesalers and paint companies

If you would like to find out more about our PaintCare scheme, view our website at: www.paintcare.org.uk