Boydens - Life at Home | Spring 2022 - Issue 02

boydens.co.uk 11 News Celebrity designer Linda Barker backs campaign to tackle UK’s 50 million litre paint stash Households across the UK are stockpiling enough paint to coat the Forth Rail Bridge 212 times, posing major sustainability and environmental issues, new research from the Royal Society of Chemistry reveals. Despite spoiling in a matter of months if stored incorrectly, 73% of UK adults have admitted to stashing away pots of unused or partially used decorating paint – 43% of which is more than three years old. But what many may not know is paint contains hidden chemicals called polymers in liquid formulations (PLFs). These are often made from fossil sources and are important ingredients needed to help paint stick to walls. Despite containing huge quantities of these specialist ingredients created using non-renewable resources, nearly all (98%) of the UK’s waste paint is either burnt or sent to landfill. Only just over a quarter (27%) of UK adults said they have recycled paint they no longer need and 67% don’t know if their local recycling facility will allow them to recycle decorating paint. However, 82% of those surveyed said they probably would use a recycling facility if they had confidence leftover paint could be recycled. To help combat this issue, the Royal Society of Chemistry, which has convened a task force to make paint more sustainable, is calling for UK governments to provide better support to local reuse and recycling initiatives, while the companies behind paint brands Dulux, Farrow and Ball, Johnstone’s Paints and Ronseal, are calling for government engagement with the British Coatings Federation’s PaintCare blueprint for a national remanufacturing programme. Professor Tom Welton, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “We have found that most households have tins of paint languishing in cupboards, sheds and garages – and that while consumers want to be able to recycle, they face a postcode lottery, making it unnecessarily difficult to do the right thing. All this paint contains huge quantities of valuable polymers in liquid formulations to help it stick to your walls. It’s unsustainable to waste such a commodity, and we’re risking environmental damage through not reusing and recycling, so we’re urging consumers to write to their MPs to help highlight this issue.” Celebrity decorator and TV presenter Linda Barker added: “Decorating was a fabulous way for us to cope with lockdowns during the pandemic, but a direct result of that is we’ve been left with an awful lot of unused paint – and while there are some organisations who offer recycling, coverage across the UK is sporadic at best. “We all have a responsibility to be more sustainable and there is already a huge trend for making more environmentally friendly choices when buying paint, so we know there is a willingness to do this. We urgently need more facilities and ways for people to be able to recycle and reuse unwanted paint so it doesn’t go bad sitting in a shed – or end up incinerated or in landfill.”

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