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GREEN SEAL ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARD FOR RECYCLED-CONTENT LATEX PAINT COMPLETED
Washington D.C., August 14, 2006 — Green Seal, Inc. announced today the completion of a national environmental standard for recycled-content latex paint. The standard is aimed at assuring consumers that recycled paint, in addition to being environmentally beneficial, can perform as well as virgin paint, both in terms of ease of application and quality and longevity of finish. The standard is available at http://www.greenseal.org/certification/environmental.cfm.
Consumer concern over paint performance has been one of the greatest impediments to increasing the use of recycled paint. Green Seal and The Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) worked with The Master Painters Institute (MPI), a nationally recognized paint performance certification organization, on the performance portion of the standard. The paint meets the same MPI performance standards used for virgin paint in any given category. The final standard takes into account the quality, performance, and safety of recycled paint, as well as environmental attributes.
For the purposes of this standard, recycled-content latex paints are made by two distinct methods, consolidation and reprocessing. The new standard contains criteria for collection and sorting, including the physical inspection and filtering of each can. Health and environmental requirements include limits on VOCs and aromatic compounds, as well as limits on the addition of harmful chemical componants. Packaging, labeling and end-of-life requirements encourage the use of recycled materials, hazards communication, recycling and safe disposal.
"Consumers are now being given independent verification of recycled paint's performance, which will lead to better informed purchasing decisions," said Scott Cassel, PSI Executive Director. "Developing a standard for this product will boost the use of recycled paint, cut local disposal costs, and create value from a material previously considered a waste."
Recycled paint incorporates unused paint collected from consumers as well as excess from the original paint manufacturing process, thereby reducing the disposal of paint. Americans generate between 50 and 130 million gallons of leftover paint each year. Creating a Green Seal environmental standard for recycled paint could have the two-fold effect of increasing the demand for recycled paint and saving taxpayer disposal dollars. In addition to consumer applications, this effort is likely to boost the use of recycled paint by federal, state, and local governments.
"Buying recycled paint will significantly decrease the cost of our local paint collections by creating a market for the leftover paint collected," said Margo Reid Brown, Chair of the California Integrated Waste Management Board "This project will boost consumer confidence in using recycled paint from those companies able to meet the Green Seal standard."
"Green Seal is looking forward to certifying recycled paint that meets the standard, which will expand markets for this product," said Arthur Weissman, Ph.D., Green Seal's President and CEO. "A Green Seal certification assures users that the product has been thoroughly evaluated, performs well, and is environmentally responsible."
Green Seal will now begin product evaluation for paints submitted for certification by manufacturers. Paints that meet the standard will earn the Green Seal of approval, and will be able to display the Green Seal Certification Mark, which is a registered mark.
Green Seal, Inc. is a non-profit organization established in 1989 to promote the production and use of environmentally preferable products and services.
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