Painting a purer environment

Although this year’s phone book listings for paint manufacturers do not include the Mid-Missouri Solid Waste Management District, they may in a few years.

The eight-county district recently bought a trailer to filter homeowners’ leftover latex paint and haul away hazardous waste, such as used motor oil and oil-based paints, said district coordinator Matt Harline. Although the district has collected paint in the past, the trailer will make the program run more efficiently, make more stops, and hopefully recycle more hazardous materials, he said.

“People want to get rid of their old paint,” Harline said. “We hope collecting the paint will lead them to turning in their other hazardous waste.”

The latex paint that’s collected will be filtered and mixed 55 gallons at a time in an off-white color that Harline said his wife calls “urban snowman.” The paint will then be available to the public at a lower cost than new paint at the hardware store.

Right now, the district offers unfiltered paint free of charge, but only five gallons are mixed at a time. The paint is a different color in every batch because different colors are recycled and mixed each time. Harline said most of the paint turned in is white, but other recycled colors are also mixed to create a usable color.

Harline got the idea for the expanded program from Bill Lewry, the environmental manager at Kansas City’s Missouri Water Services and Household Hazardous Waste Division. Lewry has seen his department’s program grow from 800 gallons of paint in 1997 to more than 191,000 gallons last year. Kansas City sells five gallons of paint for a fraction of the cost of what paint stores charge for the same quality and quantity.

“They can spend $75 somewhere else or get the same product from us for $15,” Lewry said.

The hardest part, he said, was dealing with people’s misconceptions. Once they learned about the quality, though, they started to participate in the program.

“In 1997 we couldn’t give it away; now we can’t keep it stocked.”

Harline expects the mid-Missouri program will be up and running in less than two years. He said he hopes the new trailer will allow the district to visit all eight counties at least once a year.