Resene has recycled over three million paint containers and found innovative uses for leftover paint, with its PaintWise scheme, Associate Environment Minister Scott Simpson announced today at Resene’s factory in Lower Hutt.
“Often consumers buy more paint than they need for a project and the leftover paint is stored in sheds and cupboards, or is taken to the local landfill for disposal. Resene PaintWise provides New Zealanders with an environmentally responsible way of disposing of their waste paint,” Mr Simpson says.
Resene PaintWise accepts all brands of paint and paint containers and finds alternative uses for them. These include recycling paint in concrete manufacture, recycling paint containers, donating good quality paint to community group projects and using waste paint to cover graffiti. Over 250,000 litres has been donated to communities to cover graffiti which equals over two million square metres of graffiti to be covered with the help of the scheme so far.
“It’s great to see New Zealand business taking up the challenge of reducing their products’ environmental impacts. Resene PaintWise was the first whole-life-cycle paint recycling programme in the world.”
“Resene is an excellent example of an organisation taking responsibility for waste in its industry. I encourage other organisations and industries to get accredited so they too can receive the economic and environmental benefits of product stewardship.”
“Under the Waste Minimisation Act, I can accredit product stewardship schemes that meet the criteria for reducing waste and environmental harm. A product stewardship scheme will only be accredited after it has been thoroughly assessed to ensure accreditation criteria have been met. In turn, accredited schemes have to report annually me on their objectives and targets.”
For more information about product stewardship see http://www.mfe.govt.nz/waste/product-stewardship
For more information about Resene PaintWise and where to recycle paint and paint containers see http://www.resene.co.nz/paintwise.php
