Landfills saved from tonnes of paint waste

Thursday, 17 May 2007, 10:36 am
Press Release: Resene

Press Release from Resene
17 May 2007 - For immediate release

Landfills saved from tonnes of paint waste

The world first Resene PaintWise paint and paint packaging recovery programme has gone nationwide with the launch of the Lower North Island Service. 40 Resene ColorShops all over New Zealand are designated as PaintWise Collection Centres. Residents and painters in all these areas can ColorShops designated PaintWise Collection centres.

A PaintWise mobile truck service visits the stores, processing the materials received before returning to its depot. Good quality Resene paint is provided free to community groups, waterborne paint is used for other applications such as covering graffiti, solventborne paint goes through a solvent recovery program and packaging is recycled.

To date well over 100,000 paint containers and litres of paint has been returned through the Resene PaintWise service, with large volumes of paint provided free to a wide range of community groups.

One regular recipient is the North Shore based The unTAG Trust, who have been using copious amounts of consolidated PaintWise grey paint to obliterate graffiti around the city. Recent work includes the repaint of a previously tag prone tunnel and a skate bowl, which combined soaked up 150 litres of paint. Due to the nature and repeat offending of taggers, touch ups were inevitable on an almost daily basis, however with free paint available on demand, covering any new tags just required a quick onceover with the PaintWise grey paint.

Chairman of The unTag Trust, John Crews says like the rest of the world, graffiti has become a real problem in New Zealand. “With the assistance of the North Shore City Council graffiti database and digital camera, North Shore Police and the Resene Paintwise programme, The unTAG Trust is able to minimise the effects of graffiti on the community by removing it as quickly as it appears.”

The Resene PaintWise service is supported by the Ministry for the Environment and a supportive network of councils all over New Zealand. Many councils, such as the Auckland group of councils, Dunedin City Council and Nelson City Council, are now actively encouraging residents to return their unwanted paint and paint packaging to Resene PaintWise to facilitate the recycling and reuse of materials and divert it away from council run landfills and Hazmobile services.

After nearly five years of development, Be PaintWise was launched in 2004 by Resene to encourage paint users to minimise the effects of their decorating on the environment. Following a successful trial, a permanent Resene PaintWise service was launched in the Upper North Island in September 2005, the South Island in August 2006 and has now been launched into the Lower North Island in May 2007 providing a nationwide service.

Resene provides financial assistance direct to The Resene Foundation supplemented by a PaintWise levy of 15c per litre on retail paint purchases and a small charge on non Resene cans and paint returned and trade returns. There is no charge at the time retail customers return Resene paint cans and product as these costs are met by Resene and the PaintWise levy on purchases. All PaintWise levies and charges are collected by Resene ColorShops and passed on in full to The Resene Foundation to manage the Resene PaintWise program. These funds are used to help pay the considerable costs of running the service.

Resene’s managing director, Nick Nightingale, says the PaintWise idea was conceived in 1999 and is an extension of the company’s commitment to the development of environmentally friendlier products and practices.

“Fifty years ago, Resene turned the paint industry on its head with the development of New Zealand’s first waterborne paint. Since then we’ve achieved a milestone of 10 years of Environmental Choice certification and developed a highly successful environmental choice product range, but we never intended to stop there and Resene PaintWise is testament to that,” he says.

“In New Zealand it’s estimated that just over six litres of paint per person is sold every year. That’s great for the industry, but apart from council-run services such as the Hazmobile, the disposal of old paint and paint containers is largely uncontrolled and the potential impact it could have on the environment is alarming.”

“A large percentage of our research and development budget is spent on developing waterborne products to replace solventborne ones, and the waterborne enamels that we pioneered in 1996 now easily outsell traditional enamels,” says Nick Nightingale.

“While waterborne products are considerably more expensive to produce than the solventborne ones, they’re offered to our customers at the same price to encourage them to purchase products that have less environmental impact.”

“Results show that demand continues to support Resene’s philosophy of providing products and services that combine environmental benefits with ease of use and performance,” he says.

Community groups can apply for donations of paint from the Resene PaintWise program online at www.resene.co.nz/paintwise.htm or complete and return the Community Paint Registration Form available from Resene ColorShops.

Residents keen to clean out cluttered garages and sheds can take unwanted paint and paint packaging to the following Resene ColorShops during normal opening hours:

North Island
Albany, Cnr Tawa Drive and Rosedale Road, Ph: (09) 414 6500
Hamilton, Cnr Anglesea, Hood and Knox Streets, Ph: (07) 839 9975
Hastings, Cnr Southland Road and Eastbourne Street, Ph: (06) 878 4070
Henderson, 30 Paramount Drive, Ph: (09) 836 2366
Kapiti, 112 Kapiti Road, Ph: (04) 296 1060
Levin, 292 Oxford Street, Ph: (06) 368 4484
Lower Hutt, 465 High Street, Ph: (04) 570 0683
Manukau, Sharkey Street, Ph: (09) 262 1705
Masterton, Cnr Queen and Renall Streets, Ph: (06) 377 2542
Mt Eden, 126 Valley Road, Ph: (09) 623 3950
Mt Roskill, 72 Carr Road, Ph: (09) 620 5714
Naenae, Cnr Naenae Road and Vogel Street, Ph: (04) 577 8155
Napier, 116 Taradale Road, Ph: (06) 843 1710
New Lynn, 24 Clark Street, Ph: (09) 827 6877
Newmarket, Cnr Crowhurst and Teed Streets, Ph: (09) 529 4760
Onehunga, 260 Church Street, Ph: (09) 636 4105
Orewa, 39 Florence Street, Ph: (09) 427 9560
Panmure, 45A Mt Wellington Highway, Ph: (09) 570 4235
Porirua, Lyttelton Ave, Ph: (04) 237 7954
Pukekohe, 54 Seddon Street, Ph: (09) 237 1022
Takanini, Cnr 228 Great South & Glenora Roads, Ph: (09) 296 1959
Tauranga, 47 Waihi Road, Ph: (07) 578 4169
Te Rapa, 671 Te Rapa Road, Ph: (07) 850 5472
Upper Hutt, Cnr Fergusson Drive and Montgomery Crescent, Ph: (04) 526 4946
Wairau Park, 8 Croftfield Lane, Ph: (09) 444 4387
Wanganui, 17 Wilson Street, Ph: (06) 348 0048

South Island
Addington, 351 Selwyn Street, Ph: (03) 338 1312
Ashburton, 327 Burnett Street, Ph: (03) 307 6510
Blenheim, Cnr McArtney and Redwood Streets, Ph: (03) 577 9200
Christchurch, 256 Cashel Street, Ph: (03) 366 7441
Dunedin, 172 Crawford Street, Ph: (03) 477 6566
Invercargill, 123 Yarrow Street, Ph: (03) 218 2385
Nelson, 75 Haven Road, Ph: (03) 548 7110
New Brighton, Cnr Oram Avenue and Beresford Street, Ph: (03) 388 8255
Oamaru, 190 Thames Street, Ph: (03) 433 1211
Shirley, 38 Marshland Road, Ph: (03) 385 5082
Timaru, 8 Elizabeth Street, Ph: (03) 688 4723
Tower Junction, Unit 8-9 Whiteleigh Ave, Ph: (03) 343 3990

The Resene PaintWise service is being funded by Resene with implementation assistance from:
• (Auckland/Hamilton/Tauranga) - Auckland Regional Council, Auckland City Council, Environment Bay of Plenty, Environment Waikato, Franklin District Council, Manukau City Council, North Shore City Council, Papakura District Council, Rodney District Council, Tauranga City Council and Waitakere City Council;
• (Lower North Island) – Greater Wellington Regional Council, Hastings District Council, Hutt City Council, Kapiti City Council, Napier City Council and Porirua City Council.
• (South Island) – Ashburton District Council. Christchurch City Council, Dunedin City Council, Environment Canterbury, Environment Southland, Hurunui District Council, Kaikoura District Council, Mackenzie District Council, Marlborough District Council, Nelson City Council, Otago Regional Council, Selwyn District Council, Tasman District Council, Timaru District Council, Waimakiriri District Council, Waimate District Council, WasteNet;
and the Ministry for the Environment and has been developed with 3R.

Visit www.resene.co.nz/paintwise.htm for more information on the Resene PaintWise service.

…ends

© Scoop Media

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