Peace of Mind Organizing

Unwanted housepaint gets new life with PaintAway

17 September 2015

Do you have old cans of paint hanging around your house? I do. And so do many of my clients. At least here in St. Louis, it can be so hard to actually get rid of the paint, which is considered household hazardous waste.

That’s why I was thrilled to get a call from Terry Oliver, whom I have enjoyed working with in his capacity as an employee of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. Terry has co-founded a company called PaintAway, whose focus is to help folks get rid of their paint and (here’s the best part) put it to good use. Instead of being dried out and ending up in the landfill, PaintAway gives the paint to organizations that can remix and reuse it. The Muny, St. Louis’s beloved outdoor summer theater, will be the recipient of paint collected by PaintAway, for example.

To be clear, PaintAway has no affiliation with GOT-JUNK, which cannot legally disposes of paint for its customers.

PaintAway charges a little over $5 a can for the paint removal. That’s similar to the household hazardous waste charge one incurs for paint disposal. But with PaintAway, they come to you to take it away; you don’t have to take it to the disposal facility. And, of course, the paint is reused. It seems like a brilliant idea to me and I told Terry I’d be happy to spread the word here.

I’m planning a big basement cleanout soon (we’re doing some renovations), and I plan to call PaintAway to take away my old paint and give it a new life!

Tagged with: decluttering, disposal, hazardous waste, paint, paint away

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