Senate Approves Addabbo Bill to Create Statewide Household Paint Stewardship Program

Howard Beach, NY (June 10, 2016) Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. joined with his State Senate colleagues in approving legislation (S.4926) he co-sponsors that would establish a greatly needed statewide paint stewardship program to give New Yorkers greater opportunities to safely and conveniently dispose of old cans of paint.

“Constituents who participate in my community recycling events often mention how hard it is to safely dispose of old paint and other household hazardous waste,” said Addabbo, who serves as a member of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. “The bill we passed in the Senate would go a long way towards solving this stubborn problem by helping to protect our environment, saving municipalities money and making it easier for all of us to feel good about cleaning out our basements and garages of old paint without posing a threat to our waterways and other natural resources.” 

Under the proposal, paint manufacturers would be required to either set up a paint stewardship program of their own to accept leftover household paint from consumers or form a non-profit organization of producers to launch an initiative for the collection, transportation, reuse, recycling, and/or possible burning for energy of old paint by appropriately licensed facilities. All aspects of the stewardship program must be conducted using environmentally sound management practices to ensure safe disposal and handling of the paint, which would cover containers holding up to five gallons.  Post-consumer paint collection sites would be conveniently located in cities and throughout the state to make it easy for people to participate.

“By some accounts, about 3.1 million gallons of paint go unused in New York State every year, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that about 10 percent of household paint nationwide becomes waste,” said Addabbo. “Tossing old paint into the garbage, washing it down the sink or burning it poses a threat to our environment that we can minimize with an effective safe disposal program.”

Addabbo noted that the responsibility for collecting and disposing of unused paint now largely falls upon local government household hazardous waste programs and that paint is the single largest waste stream managed by these collection services.

“If this legislation is signed into law, it could potentially save local governments in New York about $25 million annually,” he said.

Eight other states, as well as Washington, D.C., have already instituted similar programs, where 80 percent of the latex paint recycled is used to make new paint.

“As is the case with other states, the proposed New York legislation would allow for a small increase in the price of paint sold to help support the implementation and operation of the stewardship program,” Addabbo said.

Generally, the assessments in other states are approximately 35 cents for under a gallon of paint, 75 cents for a gallon, and about $1.60 for containers above a gallon up to five gallons. 

“I hope the State Assembly approves this consumer-friendly and environmentally-wise legislation this year and that we can finally get an effective paint collection program on the books in New York State,” said Addabbo. “We all want to do the right thing in terms of protecting our environment, and we should make it as easy as possible for all people to do so.”   

In the Assembly, the bill is under consideration by the Environmental Conservation Committee.