Council announces colourful new paint recycling scheme at local recycling centres
6 October 2023
Derry City and Strabane District Council have launched a targeted new recycling scheme that will help reduce paint waste.
Council has joined the Community RePaint network and are calling for householders to help reduce paint waste by dropping reusable paint to Pennyburn, Strathfoyle and Strahans Road recycling centres.
Leftover paint can be passed on to another household or community group, who could use it to add some colour to their own DIY projects, free of charge. Leftover paint can be dropped off to the three largest centres from Friday 6th October.
Conor Canning, Head of Environment, encouraged homeowners to get involved with the new scheme and check if they have any leftover paint in their sheds or garages.
“The Community RePaint network sees leftover paint as a valuable resource and works to prevent it from going to waste by redistributing it for reuse, through their UK-wide paint reuse network. This scheme benefits individuals, families, communities, and charities in need. It can enable low-income households to redecorate their homes at an affordable cost as well as helping local groups, schools and charities refresh shared spaces and create colourful murals for the community.
“In 2022 alone, over 458,000 litres of leftover paint were collected across the UK by the Community RePaint networks. Over 285,000 litres of this were redistributed and saved approximately 1.2 million kilograms of carbon emissions. This is a fantastic scheme which aligns with our Zero Waste Circular Economy Strategy, and we look forward to adding to these growing statistics, but we need our local communities to get involved and donate their leftover paint.”
When people drop off leftover paint to participating recycling centres, the onsite staff will assess the quality and check if it good enough to be reused. If it is, the leftover paint will be placed in the onsite Community RePaint paint collection areas in 3 of the main recycling centres; Pennyburn, Strathfoyle and Strahans Road. Anyone from householders to community groups and schools can call in and collect the paint, free of charge, for DIY jobs and use in local projects.
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Patricia Logue, attended the launch of the scheme and reminded residents of the benefits.
“As a Council, we are committed to reducing waste and reusing materials where possible and this is another fantastic scheme that we are adding to our already extensive list of waste-reduction initiatives.
“Passing on our leftover paint for reuse or collecting free paint to use in your own home or community group is a great way to prevent this paint from going to waste. We all tend to keep perfectly good paint in our shed or garage for another DIY project but never get round to using it. This leftover paint could be used by another householder and reduce waste at the same time.”
Please note that if you are visiting any of these three Recycling Centres to pick up paint, you will need to sign a disclaimer and provide some details. This is to ensure Council are complying with legal reporting and are aware of where the paint is going. If you are not happy with the quality of the paint when you get home, please bring it back to the Recycling Centre for recycling.
For more information, please visit www.derrystrabane.com/paintscheme