Introduction
What do you do when the thrill is gone? I’m talking about the thrill of a new paint job you just completed and now all you’re left with is that empty feeling of cleanup and extra paint you don’t want.
In this tutorial I’ll discuss various options you have for responsible paint recycling or disposal. We’ll cover the proper way to dispose or recycle leftover paint as well as disposal of paint cans, aerosol cans and paint solvents.
What is Paint? Paint is a mixture of four basic ingredients: Pigments, Resins, Solvents and Additives. It’s the solvent used in the paint that determines how it may disposed.
At the end of the day, all paints basically fall under two solvent categories which define their type; mineral spirit based solvent (commonly known as paint thinner) or water based solvent. In common convention these paints are referred to as oil based paint (alkyd resin base thinned with mineral spirits) or latex based paint (water thinned). Ironically neither latex based paint nor oil based paint contain latex or oil.
