Paint recycling – giving paint a Newlife
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Keith Harrison, MD of Newlife paint
Our guest post this week comes from Amy Shipham, Customer Support Manager for Newlife Paints.
She’s here to tell us the inspiring story behind Keith Harrison who has devised a method of recycling paint. Now in its seventh month, Newlife Paints is expanding its business.
It begins in the garage
Several years ago our Managing Director, Keith Harrison, was cleaning out his garage and came across several half used tins of paint. After some research he discovered there was no system in place, in not just the UK but in the whole of Europe, for recycling emulsion paint.
50 million litres of paint landfilled
Keith is an Industrial Chemist, with over 25 years experience working in the paint industry and as such could not believe that there was nobody dealing with such a large quantity of waste. A Government report has shown that over 50 million litres of paint which is sold each year ends up unused and eventually heads to landfill.
Paint recycling
Using special methods, developed by Keith, Newlife Paints recovers this unused paint and reformulates it back into its original high quality. Our paint recycling plant currently takes in 2 tons of paint per week, which was destined for landfill and we hope to increase this amount to 5 tons a week by the end of next year. Not only does Newlife recycle the paint but all of the steel tins and plastic pots, which the waste is delivered in, also gets recycled, meaning out waste output is practically zero.
Recycled masonry paint
We have a standard range of 23 colours, including White and Magnolia, as well as providing a colour match service, our paint is suitable for use on all interior walls and ceilings. All our paint is available in Matt, Eggshell or Silk finishes. We also sell recycled masonry paint. The paint is of as high a quality as the leading brand (after all it is made from their products), but is available at a lower price than the high street brands offer.
Closing the loop
Newlife Paints is in discussions with a major DIY chain in the hope that recycled paint will be available in the shops soon and that a closed-loop recycling system can be set up with the stores. Currently Newlife Paints products are available direct from our company at Newlife Paints.
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I recently toured our local recycle/waste dump place. Sorry, don’t know the proper term. Anyway, was impressed with some of what they do, including how they handle paint. They allow people to drop it off and they set up a nice display so anyone can go pick up paint for free. And some of it gets sent off to a place that does some mysterious chemical process and turns it back into, ta da! paint! This is in the US. I had never heard of this but I’m glad it’s going on, especially as I found huge vats of paint in my shed, left behind by a previous owner.
closing the loop on waste, what a complete circle, reinventing the wheel for the future. i do believe there is hope for clean commerce. it may take a while to reach us here in the plains, i’m waiting for it to be profitable enough for business to get involved.
I have passed on my spare paint through Freecycle.
In addition to the above article Newlife Paint is now available to purchase online at http://www.newlifepaintsonline.co.uk
Do they get this from council tips then or can you send it direct?
@LJayne:
Hi LJayne
Currently we are only taking paint from council HWRCs in Hampshire (mostly due to the huge amount we get in). But we are in discussions with a large DIY chain to organise collections from the public as well.