The New York State Assembly (Albany, New York, USA) recently passed legislation that establishes the PaintCare program in the state. PaintCare is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization created by the American Coatings Association (ACA), a membership-based trade association of the paint manufacturing industry headquartered in Washington, DC, USA.
The legislation, Assembly Bill A6373, which establishes a postconsumer paint collection program, is expected to be signed into law by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. A companion bill, Senate Bill S4351, was approved by the state Senate earlier in the month.
Established in 2009, PaintCare plans and operates paint stewardship programs for paint manufacturers and producers in U.S. states and jurisdictions. As of this writing, several states have approved the ACA-run program, including Oregon, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Colorado, Vermont, Maine, and the District of Columbia. A program for Washington state will be implemented in 2020.
According to New York State Senator Tom O’Mara, who sponsored Senate Bill S4351, the PaintCare legislation will accomplish several aims: create local jobs, provide relief to local property taxpayers, and encourage recycling and disposal of unused paint using environmentally sound practices. In addition, experts believe that the legislation would reduce the burden on local governments charged with collecting and disposing of unused, post-consumer paint.
Within the states in which it operates, PaintCare is responsible for developing and implementing strategies that reduce the amount of post-consumer architectural paint, specifically by reusing and recycling the paint that already exists or by disposing of it in an environmentally sound and cost-effective manner. Funding for the PaintCare program will not only cover newly manufactured paint but will also cover so-called “legacy paint” that goes unused by individual consumers. The funding will also be used to promote consumer education and outreach about the program, along with administrative costs.
The ACA says that post-consumer paint is the number-one product, by volume and cost, coming into Hazardous Household Waste (HHW) programs across the U.S. In New York State alone, the total amount of unused paint is approximately 3.1 million gal (11,734,776 L), according to the Product Stewardship Institute, an environmental safety organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. USA.
Source: American Coatings Association, www.paint.org.