The British Coatings Federation (BCF) announced plans to tackle the issue of leftover decorative paint, much of which ends up in landfills. The plan includes implementing PaintCare, an industry-led project to help create a circular economy, aiming to make better use of the estimated 50 million liters of leftover decorative paint generated each year in the country.

Various stakeholders across the nation, including decorative paint manufacturers, retailers, trade associations, waste management companies, local and national government. and other third-sector organizations, are backing the program. These stakeholders will be confirming their commitment to help create a sustainable circular economy for leftover decorative paint, to increase reuse and remanufacturing rates from 2 percent to over 50 percent.

At the BCF’s Annual Conference in Chester, Chief Executive Tom Bowtell said of the PaintCare launch, “Despite the great strides made by the UK paint industry to reduce their environmental impact, leftover paint continues to end up in landfill. We now have the ability to reuse and remanufacture paint, but challenges remain over creating a national network of drop-off points at council recycling centers, finding markets for remanufactured paint and regulatory issues. The aim of PaintCare is to help remove these barriers, to create a national solution to the leftover paint problem, but this will not happen overnight and will require collaboration from all stakeholders.”

The launch of PaintCare was welcomed by David Cornish, Global Sustainability Manager for AkzoNobel Decorative Paints, who commented, “Our schemes have already saved 2.7 million liters of paint from landfill or incineration, and we are excited to build on this success together with the British Coatings Foundation. PaintCare will help us work together with other parties, especially in government and the waste industry, to address some of the more challenging problems.”

Key paint brands associated with the initiative include AkzoNobel (Dulux), Craig and Rose, Crown Paints, Farrow & Ball, Green Farm Paints, Little Greene, Newlife Paints, Manor Coatings, PPG Industries (Johnstone’s and Leyland), Sherwin-Williams (Ronseal), and Valspar.