Recycled Paints

For many years several companies have produced Recycled/Eco friendly coatings. This has been achieved using a mixture of old paints obtained from a variety of sources mixed with new raw materials such as pigments and binders. Most of these coatings are still only between 50-70% of what would be classed as truly recycled. However, there will always be the argument that these are nevertheless better for the environment than modern paints if you are looking for a product that has been responsibly sourced and better for the environment in general.

With ever-changing tastes and trends, it is too easy just to throw things away and buy new. Inevitably, that leads to households and businesses continually having to send these “unfashionable” or unwanted items to landfill. With paint alone, Defra estimates that 50 million litres of waste paint are headed for landfill or incineration in the UK every year. That is enough to fill around 20,000 Olympic size swimming pools.

Technical Paint Services has over the past 70 years made a variety of coatings, from 100% natural products to high end industrial coatings, all with individual benefits and performance values.

Over 10 years ago we were approached to produce a product to coat recycled car tyres that had been converted in to rubber chippings for use in gardens, landscaping and sports surfaces. We developed a coating that was specially formulated to dry onto the surface of the rubber during a heating/drying process. This “curing” ensured the paint bonded to the rubber for long-term performance in a variety of environments and weather conditions. This process has proven to work very well and has a life span of over 5 years outdoors. The main criteria for this coating is that it had to be made from at least 95% of recycled water based paints, water based wood stains and emulsion, all of which would have normally gone to landfill.

This success inevitably gave rise to the question why can’t this process be expanded upon using oil based products as well as emulsions, such as oil based glosses, undercoats and primers? If anything, these are the worst type of liquids to go into landfill as they contain non-degradable chemicals. We therefore set about experimenting and testing with cross-blending products from a range of manufacturer’s waste paints. The outcome is that we now have the formulations to make a range of coatings directly from products that would otherwise have gone to landfill or for incineration.

You may say that this has been done before and you would be correct. The difference between ourselves and other producers however, is that we only use previously manufactured products, we add no new pigments or any new solvents; all our coatings are made by re-blending coatings that are already pigmented to create any new colour and finish. All the paint we use comes from businesses that have ceased trading or manufacturing, by clearing old stocks from contractors and professional decorating companies, retail outlet miss-tints or from manufacturers who have colour issues between batches, plus our own production over-runs. Our recycled coatings are made up of 90-95% recycled ingredients. Elements of our “recycled” paint which are new, but are required by legislation to produce a “saleable” product, include new containers, filtering methods and the means of mixing.

What we offer.
We only offer colours from the ingredients we have to recycle. Our range and choice of colours will come and go and stock will last as long as we can manufacture from the components we have available at that time. If you can’t see what you are looking for please call us as we may be still be able to help with your needs.

All colours will be coded to the nearest BS4800 colour which will give you some idea of the final finish. By implication these cannot be a 100% match, but will be close. We will only produce when ordered and hold no stocks on the shelf. Manufacture can take up to 7 working days. When ordering we advise that you calculate very carefully the amount of paint required as individual colours may not be repeatable with an accurate match.