Disposing of paint

The previous owners of our house left gallons of paint. I thought the paint would be useful. To do touch ups. To refresh the walls.

In our first year of living here, we had the boys’ rooms repainted. They were in pink. Not what teenage boys like. But we didn’t use any of the paint left behind. The boys picked their own colours.

Then when we had one of our bathrooms renovated, the ceilings and woodwork needed new paint. I wanted new colours.

I plan on getting the whole of the outside of the house repainted in a few years. But in different colours.

Needless to say, we haven’t done touch ups. Work and life just got too busy.

To top it off, paint doesn’t last.

No guesses where the old paint is stored. In the garage with all the other junk.

My local council accepts old paint. So slowly I have, and will continue to, take tins of paint to the community recycling centre.

The council says to combine paint if the same type so tins are filled, take the tins with paint to the recycling depot and put empty, dried-out tins into the regular bin for collection.

On what will be my first of several visits to the recycling depot, I took 6 one litre tins of paint. All were nearly full already – so no decanting needed and no empty tins for the bin.

When I got to the recycling centre and opened my boot, the fellow said that I didn’t have much. I wonder how much other people bring?!? I did tell him this was just the start and I would be bringing more.

Sad to say, you wouldn’t even notice I took out these tins. The garage is such a mess. I am not doing any before photos – I am much to embarrassed.

Footnote: I don’t know what they do with the paint.