Last weekend, several Home Depot stores in our area were accepting old oil and latex paint for recycling. My wife and I took them up on their offer (yes, that’s me at right), since we’ve accumulated quite a bit of unwanted paint — mostly a trunk-load of quart-sized samples, indicative of our indecision in choosing final colors for our home. The collected paint will be separated by type (oil or latex) and then mixed into two or three hues (usually “warm” and “cool”) and donated to bedeck low-income housing, government buildings, etc.

Waste Age has covered paint recycling before and I even saw Mike Rowe do it on “Dirty Jobs,” but it still seems like an extremely rare phenomenon. Prior to this event, whenever we inquired with our local waste handler about the best way to dispose of paint, we were told to either leave the lid off and let it dry out, or absorb it with kitty litter, both ending with a trip to the landfill. That was unacceptable to us, so in the basement it sat until a better option came along.

Do you have regular access to paint recycling where you live? If you are a waste handler, does your company offer such a service?