Read the full story from Coatings World.
Every time a contractor or DIY painter opens up a can of paint, it is an opportunity to create a fresh, new look to a home or a project. Rarely, though, does the painter have the exact amount of paint that is needed. There typically is extra paint left over. According to the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), a policy advocate and consulting nonprofit, approximately 10% of all household latex and oil-based paint goes
unused in the US.“That’s about 80 million gallons each year,” PSI writes on its website. “When dumped in the trash or down the drain, unused paint can contaminate our environment with volatile organic compounds, fungicides, and (in the case of very old paint) hazardous metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium.”
In some cases, the extra paint can come in handy for touchups. However, most cans of paint stack up in a cabinet or get thrown away. That is wasteful and not exactly ideal for the environment.
Scott Cassel, CEO and founder of PSI, saw this as an opportunity to reuse or recycle leftover paint. Previously, when Cassel was director of waste policy and planning for Massachusetts in the late 1990s, he worked with Benjamin Moore to recycle its paint back into virgin paint at its Milford, MA plant
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