Dulux Decorator Centre and Veolia receive 1M paint cans for recycling

26 Oct 2022 --- Dulux Decorator Centre has received one million paint cans from its can recycling scheme. The merchant’s free-of-charge can recycling scheme is a partnership with Veolia, a UK-based resource management company.

Through the initiative, Dulux Decorator Centre says it is improving the environmental efficiency of the industry by reducing the amount of construction waste that ends up in landfill.

In line with the UK government’s ambition for respecification, it is also important to consider how product packaging can be disposed of to reach net zero targets by 2050.

Architects and specifiers need to consider how all building materials can aid greener practices – including paints and coatings. Besides ensuring a sustainable specification, it is important to consider how product packaging can be disposed of responsibly at the end of a project.

“By recycling high-density PE paint pots up to 88% of the carbon emissions are saved compared with using virgin materials, and using recycled steel and tin saves around 60% of the emissions against extracting new resources,” says Donald Macphail, chief operating officer, treatment at Veolia UK.

“This is just the beginning of the journey, and I encourage all in the industry to utilize this service as together we can make a huge difference to deliver ecological transformation.”

The merchant calls upon architects, specifiers and designers to include a clause in their painting specifications requiring all empty paint cans to be recycled.Paint waste recycling
The recycling project is intended to make it easy for specifiers to identify decorating contractors that have adopted best practice approaches The Dulux Decorator Centre team monitors customers’ recycling and sends a certificate each year to certify how many cans they have recycled as a percentage of their total use.

Duncan Lochhead, commercial sustainability manager at Dulux Decorator Centre explains: “According to the Construction Leadership Council, the construction of our built environment produces the largest waste stream by tonnage, and though we recognize that we have a long way to go, recycling paint cans is a step in the right direction and an easy way to reduce the environmental impact of a project.”

“We encourage architects, specifiers, and designers to include a clause in their painting specifications requiring all empty paint cans to be recycled using the Dulux Decorator Centre can recycling scheme.”

“This is a great example of an industry coming together to make a real difference to improve recycling. To reach our net zero goals we must take every opportunity to cut climate-changing carbon emissions,” adds Macphail.

Dulux Decorator Centre accepts a range of dry or empty metal or plastic paint cans, including Dulux, Armstead, Dulux Woodcare, Cuprinol, Sikkens and Hammerite.

Cans that have contained emulsions, gloss paints, undercoats and primers, floor paints, exterior paints and masonry paints – and those that have contained water-based or solvent-based products – can all be recycled under the scheme. Plastic cans are shredded, washed and sent back into the plastics market, while metal is remelted into new steel and returned to the general market.

In another development, Jokey unveiled a bucket with a sealing lid for filling dispersion paints with its long-standing customer Meffert. Meffert, headquartered in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, primarily produces paints and varnishes in addition to plasters and building protection products.

The sealing technology ensures the quality characteristics of the product more strongly than before, optimizing the processing procedure.

Edited by Natalie Schwertheim

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