# latex paint disposal



## venuetech (Apr 14, 2010)

There at one time we had a staff member here who could never say no to a donation of latex paint. over the years we got quite a bit of the stuff usualy mismached color or leftovers from small contractors. No mater how may times i told her i did not want or need any paint of this type she would just sneek it into the shop and stash it away. at this point i have about 150 gallons to get rid of. 

Has any one ever used paint hardner? to harden latex for disposal?

my understanding is that it is "Sodium polyacrylate" aka the super absorber in dipers

Paint Solidifier Pail, With Scoop, 4 G - Paint Activators & Additives - Paints - Janitorial & Painting : Grainger Industrial Supply


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## zmb (Apr 14, 2010)

Oh gosh that is a lot of paint...

Depending on where you are at, some places will take any color of latex if it can be reused (it all gets blended into one color, usually around beige) or some places require that the paint be dried and landfilled.

Never had to use a paint hardener though.


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## MNicolai (Apr 14, 2010)

My painter friend takes his extra good paint at the end of the year and donates it to the theatre he owns. The bad stuff, which is oil-based, he mixes down with kitty litter and disposes off that way.

Our painter on staff mixes his paint down with wood chips before disposing of it.

Something you want to be careful of, which that above painter friend of mine warned me about a couple weeks ago, is that he knows a lot of painters who mix down their paints at the end of the year and donate them off to theatres. They don't do this to be nice, they do it because they get a hefty tax write-off. They're also very prone to include lots of oil-based paints (which are extreme fire hazards and while they still have legal uses, must be stored in a fire resistant cabinet) in their donations solely to avoid having to dispose of them properly themselves.

Always beware of what kind of paint is being donated. We just had a donation a couple months ago with some cans of flammable alkyd paints and other oil-based nightmares that we didn't notice until after-the-fact. I've since moved them to our fire resistant cabinet pending further direction from the fire marshal, but I will not be the happiest camper if we have to dispose of these as hazardous materials and pay fees for the process.


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## Van (Apr 14, 2010)

If you are going to dispose of Latex paint most landfills and Gabage Dumps require that it be hardened. Use the stuff from Grainger, Home Depot, your local Paint supplier. I have a 5 gal bucket of the stuff I bought from Grainger it works great. Mix it, let it harden, throw it away with "regular" shop trash. I keep a 'trash' 5 gallon bucket that I pour my "trash" paint into once it gets a gallon or so of liquid paint in it I harden it then pour in some more till the bucket is full.
Many places , as mentioned, accept donated Latex paints. In my area Metro has a program called Metro Paint. they take in usable, but surplus paints, combine them then resell the resulting paint. It's great for base painting flats, platforms, House exteriors. Since it's a mix of a lot of paints that is then reduced in volume it tends to have HUGE amounts of pigments and covers very well. They will not accept Moldy, completely seperated or watered down paints like we often use in theater.


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## gafftaper (Apr 15, 2010)

For those reading this who don't have a LOT of paint to dispose of (like the OP). Just find an area that you can leave several cans undisturbed. Pull the lids off and let them dry. I've got a shelf in the shop which usually has 2 or 3 cans drying out. I know another theater that has an out door entrance with an open sided stairway outside the shop. They put their paint cans under that stairway to dry. Just make sure no rain gets in. 

> They're also very prone to include lots of oil-based paints (which are extreme fire hazards and while they still have legal uses, must be stored in a fire resistant cabinet) in their donations solely to avoid having to dispose of them properly themselves.


I believe fire code says if you are storing more than 5 gallons of paint it needs to be in a locker. Doesn't matter if it's oil based or not.


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## KeepOnTruckin (Apr 15, 2010)

What about mixing in sawdust? Every shop has it for free. Once thickened/hardened just put the lid on and you can throw it out with the regular trash.


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## MNicolai (Apr 15, 2010)

gafftaper said:


> For those reading this who don't have a LOT of paint to dispose of (like the OP). Just find an area that you can leave several cans undisturbed. Pull the lids off and let them dry. I've got a shelf in the shop which usually has 2 or 3 cans drying out. I know another theater that has an out door entrance with an open sided stairway outside the shop. They put their paint cans under that stairway to dry. Just make sure no rain gets in.
> 
> I believe fire code says if you are storing more than 5 gallons of paint it needs to be in a locker. Doesn't matter if it's oil based or not.



I verified with AHJ what our local policy is. It depends on how much, and where. More than a few gallons of oil-based paints should be stored in a fire resistant cabinet as a general rule of thumb.

Latex paints are not flammable and don't represent a fire hazard, and as such do not need to be stored in a fire resistant cabinet.

There are some exceptions and notes to the rule, though, which is why each person should make sure they check with their local AHJ's on the specifics of their particular location. If we were to store all of our oil-based paints in a shed, my AHJ said we would not need to place them in fire resistant cabinets.

Back on topic:

I read somewhere that when disposing of paint cans, it's best to leave the lids off such that when they are picked up for disposal, it is easy to identify them either as empty or as hardened. If disposed of in a dumpster, it's debatable as to whether or not that's worth doing given that it's highly probable no one will notice the paint cans when they empty the dumpsters.


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## Dionysus (Apr 26, 2010)

The Community theatre I do a lot with used to accept paint, and the same with the local highschool drama program. Found that the donated paint rarely got used as it was often a colour of no use.

In college my paint teacher had us mix any largely un-diluted (watered down) paint that was 'no good' into the 'smeg' bucket. Essentially we mix all the old paint into a big bucket of excellent primer, that we call 'smeg'. As previously stated it is an EXCELLENT primer because it's so pigment heavy, actually I find it to do a better job than some commercial primers (especially if you are going dark over it).

I know some people who actually take the old nasty paint to be thrown away and 'harden it' by using carpet scraps from flooring stores. Lay out some carpet, throw on the paint and let it dry. It soaks it up, hardens, and BOTH have to be disposed of any-way.

Always recycle old cans. I try to keep a bunch around to use for mixing, holding mixed paint, holding glazes, etc... But someone keeps throwing them out for some reason. Found a few in the dumpster... Pissed me off. We can get CHARGED here for putting recyclables in a dumpster if we get caught.


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## mstaylor (Apr 27, 2010)

I am lead paint certified and the instructor said to take unused paint outside, spread a tarp or plastic sheet , spread sand a couple inches thick and apply paint. I have found you can do the same with a trash can, sand and some type of mixer.


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## MercyTech (Apr 27, 2010)

We get a lot of donated latex paint by parents of the high school (I ask for only white primer and black, but every day there seems to be several half-full gallons of random colors by the tech door), and unless we get a fair amount of a bright primary color, we just mix them all together in five gallon drums to make primer and "baby poop brown".

All the empty gallon containers are rinsed and placed out by our scrap pile, on a rack to dry out, then after each season they get dumped with the rest of the scrap that can't be recycled (paint cans in our area can't go into recycling).

Incidentally, the scrap pile is a favorite pick and pull by local neighbors who use it for firewood. They politely ask, and then come by and grab armfulls. I am just happy it does not go into a landfill.


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## Parker (Apr 27, 2010)

gafftaper said:


> For those reading this who don't have a LOT of paint to dispose of (like the OP). Just find an area that you can leave several cans undisturbed. Pull the lids off and let them dry. I've got a shelf in the shop which usually has 2 or 3 cans drying out. I know another theater that has an out door entrance with an open sided stairway outside the shop. They put their paint cans under that stairway to dry. Just make sure no rain gets in.
> 
> I believe fire code says if you are storing more than 5 gallons of paint it needs to be in a locker. Doesn't matter if it's oil based or not.



That is what we do also... take the lids off and let the old paint dry in the can.

According to our district's 'Life Safety Inspector' we also have to store ALL paints in fire-rated cabinets (those can get pricey!).


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## MNicolai (Apr 27, 2010)

Parker said:


> That is what we do also... take the lids off and let the old paint dry in the can.
> 
> According to our district's 'Life Safety Inspector' we also have to store ALL paints in fire-rated cabinets (those can get pricey!).



Even latex paint? You should have him talk to your neighborhood AHJ about that, because latex paints are not at all flammable.


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## kendal69 (Apr 27, 2010)

Could you use it as a primer???


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## Parker (Apr 27, 2010)

MNicolai said:


> Even latex paint? You should have him talk to your neighborhood AHJ about that, because latex paints are not at all flammable.


I know they are not flammable. 
He just made it a hard-and-fast rule about paints in general. The art dept. has the same rules thrown on them to.

I can see his point when it comes to spray paints and oil based... not latex!


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## MNicolai (Apr 27, 2010)

Parker said:


> I know they are not flammable.
> He just made it a hard-and-fast rule about paints in general. The art dept. has the same rules thrown on them to.
> 
> I can see his point when it comes to spray paints and oil based... not latex!



Safety's great when it's implemented properly. Otherwise it's just expensive.


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## Ryan5443 (Jan 13, 2011)

Although it is usually frowned upon dispose of latex paint in the trash, while still wet, if you leave it out to dry, and then throw it out the garbage pickup will usually take it. Or you can just slowly dispose of it (aka. one gallon in each trash can) until it is gone. Personally we have tons of paint as well, all in odd colors, and nowhere to put them but we still collect them anyway on the 'off chance' we actually need a hot florescent pink or something to that effect.

RCF


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## DuckJordan (Jan 13, 2011)

The reason why its frowned apon is it destroys the environment, latex like any other rubber material doesn't decompose very quickly, and when it does it leaves a very oily residue. THIS IS ILLEGAL! DO NOT DO IT. Almost every city with a population of over 80,000 people will have a disposal place who will likely take your paint for free. That said I would suggest to the higher ups that you should never do it and could have some legal fines to go along with him or her being fired by the district they work for.


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## Les (Jan 13, 2011)

Parker said:


> I know they are not flammable.
> He just made it a hard-and-fast rule about paints in general. The art dept. has the same rules thrown on them to.
> 
> I can see his point when it comes to spray paints and oil based... not latex!



While inconvenient, I'll bet he does this to avoid confusion and mistakes as to "which paint goes where". This way, there is a very small margin of error and his inspections (if applicable) are quicker and easier to conduct.

But yes, this does sound expensive!!


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## Ryan5443 (Jan 15, 2011)

DuckJordan said:


> The reason why its frowned apon is it destroys the environment, latex like any other rubber material doesn't decompose very quickly, and when it does it leaves a very oily residue. THIS IS ILLEGAL! DO NOT DO IT. Almost every city with a population of over 80,000 people will have a disposal place who will likely take your paint for free. That said I would suggest to the higher ups that you should never do it and could have some legal fines to go along with him or her being fired by the district they work for.


 He does raise a good point, there is usually a waste facility you can go to, but also it doesn't just cause environmental damage, if it were to be put into a land fill and wasn't entirely dry it could leak into the water table and contaminate local streams etc...

RCF


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## venuetech (Jan 16, 2011)

Well I have been making progress on disposal thanks to the fact the scenic painter who accepted donations has left. so i don't have any incoming. 
I have been drying the paint off in 5 gallon buckets in an out of the way corner.for a week or two then tossing the dry plugs it just takes a regular routine.

I did try the paint solidification chemicals but it was not practical for the quantity of paint.


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## DuckJordan (Jan 16, 2011)

venuetech said:


> Well I have been making progress on disposal thanks to the fact the scenic painter who accepted donations has left. so i don't have any incoming.
> I have been drying the paint off in 5 gallon buckets in an out of the way corner.for a week or two then tossing the dry plugs it just takes a regular routine.
> 
> I did try the paint solidification chemicals but it was not practical for the quantity of paint.


 

Is there no public disposal building in your area? that way all you would have to do is take the paint and they would mix it into new colors if its still good and give it away for things such as habitat for humanity. To me it seems like a huge waste of paint to just keep drying it out and just throwing it away. and I'm pretty sure thats illegal everywhere since just because its dry doesn't mean when it decomps that it will degrade like other things. It leaves an OILY residue. Try contacting your mayors office they should be able to figure out what you need to do with it. Just throwing away paint weather its dry or wet is illegal and shouldn't be done period. Exhaust your other ways of removing the paint from your possesion before even thinking about throwing it in the trash.


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## mstaylor (Jan 16, 2011)

Actually it is not illegal if done correctly. I was instructed by a state certification class to dispose of paint using the paint/sand mixture _unless it was completely dry._ So basically according to MD, it is legal to let it dry out and put it in the landfill.


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## venuetech (Jan 16, 2011)

I did contact the Borough waste disposal specialist. I am following her instructions for proper disposal. Habitat for H, took what they wanted and left me the rest.


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