How Paint Gets Recycled

Most of the paint you take to a household hazardous waste (HHW) collection event or facility,  collection location or even the dump, gets recycled in one fashion or another. This is because there are regulations in most states against putting liquids into landfills.

Here’s what most commonly happens once paint cans leave your hands:

1. Sorting for reuse—Many HHW programs screen the paint as it comes in. Those cans with labels intact that are more than half full and fairly clean are put directly into a reuse, swap or exchange program and given away to the public.
2. Consolidation for reuse—Some HHW facilities will sort paint by color (e.g. light, medium, dark, green-yellow-blue), filtering and bulking it into large containers. The paint is then dispensed into smaller containers (usually five gallon buckets) and sold or given away.
3. Re-processing into new paint—High-quality, recycled latex paint is made by filtering old paint, blending it with virgin materials, making adjustments in some of the paint properties (principally the viscosity and pH) and adding pigments to make different colors.
4. Additive for other products—Latex paint is bulked into 55 gallon drums and sent to special facilities that add it to the manufacturing of different products, such as concrete blocks and pigment additives.
5. Landfilled—While not preferable, paint is mixed with other products or chemicals like clay to solidify it, then it can be safely landfilled.

The reprocessing options above apply to latex paint only. If your paint is oil-based, it will likely be burned for fuel to create electricity.