How do you recycle latex paint?
Many ask about how we make such great products with waste latex paint. It's a story we love sharing with everyone. It breaks up into two parts. The first part is collecting the waste paint. And the second part is using and processing that waste so it becomes a feed stock for our products.
Collecting Waste Paint with MXI
MXI Environmental Services, LLC (MXI) is an established Environmental Services Firm that specializes in managing large waste collection programs. The company is one of the premier Household Hazardous Waste Event Management companies in the country.
MXI also has a fleet of vehicles permitted to transport any solid and hazardous waste. In addition, MXI owns and operates a Material Recovery Facility designed to recycle hazardous waste. MXI collects the waste paint, transports it, and uses to it develop our paint products. Third Eye Products was formed by the group that owns MXI along with other partners. Third Eye is open to selling paint generated from other waste companies but is currently using only MXI material as feedstock for our products.
Household Hazard Waste Collection Events
MXI collects waste latex paint in a variety of ways. Primarily it is done at household hazardous waste events. A household hazardous waste event, typically referred to as a “HHW,” a one day event organized by state, county, or another local governing entity to provide local residents an outlet for hazardous materials used in the household. The aim is to keep hazardous materials out of the residual waste stream and ensure the material is handled properly by a vetted professional waste collection company. MXI Environmental has managed HHW events since 2001 ranging in location from Maine to Mississippi.
Although waste latex paint is not hazardous, it is the largest waste stream received at HHW events. MXI collects the waste latex paint from the citizens at the events. The latex paint is segregated from the hazardous waste and stacked into a cubic yard box lined with plastic to ensure no spillage. The cubic yard boxes of paint are loaded on a truck at the job site where they are then shipped to our facility in Abingdon Virginia.
Permanent and Fixed Sites
Many counties and municipalities provide their residents drop off location for their waste paint to help provide them service in between HHW events. MXI services these locations. The waste latex paint is collected by the local employees and packed into cubic yard boxes provided by MXI . MXI sends company trucks weekly to service these locations. The drivers load the boxes of paint onto the truck and provide replacement supplies for the location.
Typically the waste latex paint is picked up in a straight truck and brought back to MXI terminal in Langhorne Pennsylvania where it is unloaded and consolidated on a waste load to the Latex Paint Recycling Plant Abingdon Virginia facility.
Paint Stewardship Programs
MXI Environmental is an approved vendor for Paintcare, a 501(c)(3) formed by the American Coatings Association ("ACA"). The organization advocates for and administers paint stewardship programs throughout the country. Paintcare was formed by the paint manufacturers as a proactive means to advocate for sustainability programs for the waste their products generate. Hats off to ACA for their proactive approach to environmental stewardship.
Paintcare works with commercial paint vendors to provide waste paint drop off locations for local residents and assists local governments with latex paint collections at their local HHW events. MXI Environmental currently manages the operations in Washington DC and several of the one day events in the state of Connecticut.
For more information check out Paincare's website at https://www.paintcare.org/.
Latex Paint Recycling
Once the waste latex paint is received at MXI's Redwood Recycling Plant it is no longer waste, it is our feedstock! The cubic yard boxes are unloaded off the truck and put into our staging area.
The paint The processing area contains custom made sorting stations that are designed to efficiently open every can and screen the contents. Each can is unloaded and screened to ensure it is latex paint. Sometimes oil based material work their way into the mix and those materials are segregated and sent to a proper Materials Recovery Facility. Once the can is confirmed as latex paint is put onto the sorting station and opened. The technicians then sort the paint by color.
The sorting stations are equipped with customer designed mechanisms to remove the paint from the can over funnels fixed over 275 gallon totes. Once these totes are filled they are replaced with an empty tote. The full totes are then filtered and treated to specification to meet the quality control standards set by Third Eye Products.
The full totes are then staged for packing. Some customers buy in large quantities to get the best pricing. We pack the material in 1 gallon cans, 5 gallon buckets, 10 ounce craft bottles.
Pictures from our HHW Events
Please see our gallery below for some pictures from our events. You can find more pictures at our Facebook page.
