Reusing and Recycling Paint – It’s a Thing

Running out of paint just before you finish a job is terrible, so of course you buy more paint than you need, and then you have leftover paint. What do you do with it now? 

There are a lot of things you could do with it besides throwing the can in the garbage (which you won’t do, right?) or pour it down a drain (which you really, REALLY won’t do, right?). You could tuck it away to use it for touching up scratches and dings when the thing that you painted gets damaged. You could use it to paint a piece of furniture (maybe you’d like to have a piece of lawn furniture that matches your house’s new paint job?). You could ask around and see if a friend wants it. Or, you could bring it in to your local paint recyclers. Your unused paint can be combined with other people’s unused paint to make high-quality paint that will find a new life – as new paint. 

Local paint stores like Miller Paint and Sherwin-Williams both accept ends of unused cans of paint – and no, they don’t have to be paint that they sold, either. Other paint stores, such as Tommy’s Paint Pot and Home Depot, do not, but they do know where to direct you if you come in with a quarter of a can. 

Another option is to offer a partial can of paint on Craigslist, the Freecycle Corvallis Group or a local Facebook group such as Buy Nothing Corvallis or Corvallis Neighbor to Neighbor Gift Giving. These are also places where you could ask for a partial can if you only need a small amount of paint for a small project. 

By John M. Burt 

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