PaintCare Program Update
Background
The goal of ACA-supported paint stewardship legislation is for architectural paint manufacturers to implement convenient, cost-effective, and sustainable programs for the responsible management of postconsumer architectural paint. The paint industry established PaintCare in 2009 to serve as its stewardship organization in compliance with each state’s paint stewardship law. PaintCare sets up conveniently located paint drop-off sites throughout each PaintCare state and conducts outreach to promote paint stewardship to consumers. We manage paint following the waste management hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle—or, in PaintCare’s educational messaging, “buy right, use it up, and recycle the rest.”
Across the 11 active PaintCare programs, staff have set up over 2,400 year-round paint drop-off sites for use by households, businesses such as painting contractors, and others with leftover paint. Paint retail stores make up 77% of the sites; 10% are municipal household hazardous waste (HHW) facilities; 8% are solid waste transfer stations; and the remaining 5% include recycling facilities, public works yards, and 77 material reuse stores (e.g., Habitat for Humanity Restores) where leftover paint in good condition is resold. Since the program began, we have also managed paint from over 7,800 municipal HHW and paint collection events, conducted more than 10,000 large volume pickups (LVP) from painting contractors and others with 100 gallons of accumulated paint or more, and held over 350 PaintCare-operated drop-off events in underserved communities. We are collecting approximately 700,000 gallons of postconsumer paint per month and have collected over 70 million gallons since PaintCare began, consisting of about 75% latex (water-based) paint and the remainder oil and solvent-based paints.
About 200 manufacturers participate in PaintCare. Each state program is funded through a nominal, mandatory “PaintCare fee” placed by manufacturers on every container of architectural paint sold in the state. The fee is based on container size and is applied to containers larger than a half pint and up to 5 gallons in size, using three fee tiers. The fee is set at a level to cover the costs specific to each program and varies by state, though an effort is made to use similar fee structures when possible. Current fees range from 30 cents on pints and quarts to $2.45 on 2–5-gallon containers. Fees are adjusted as needed. Six fee changes have occurred in the 14-year history of the program – four increases and two decreases. The most recent, a second fee increase for Vermont has been approved by that state’s agency and goes into effect May 1, 2024.
Paint management costs (paint collection bins, transportation, recycling, processing, etc.) make up about 75% of program expenses. Communications and administration make up the rest. An independent financial audit of PaintCare is conducted annually. A detailed accounting of each state program is found in their respective annual reports available on the PaintCare website.
ACA Action
With the recent passage of paint stewardship legislation in Illinois, staff are underway developing PaintCare’s 12th program. PaintCare recently promoted Jacob Saffert, formerly an experienced and effective state coordinator in Minnesota, to serve as state manager for the new Illinois program. He is working closely with PaintCare’s new director of state programs, Nichole Dorr. They will draft a program plan for review by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, hire additional field staff, and begin recruiting drop-off site partners over the next year. The program is currently expected to start in 2025, pending submission and approval of the plan.
Under Steve Pincuspy, PaintCare’s new director of sustainability, the program has been working to finalize a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory considering recent passage of climate disclosure reporting requirements at the state (California) and federal (Securities Exchange Commission) levels. We anticipate a completed report by this summer with various recommendations to follow. Upon report completion, PaintCare plans to conduct a lifecycle analysis (LCA) for leftover paint and paint containers, an effort that will rely heavily on GHG emissions results calculated during the inventory. The goal of this project is to compare the estimated health and environmental impacts associated with different processing methods for leftover latex- and oil-based paints, as well as the varying disposition methods for metal, plastic, and hybrid paint containers managed by the program. A draft proposal for the LCA has been previously vetted and will be updated to reflect any changes to the GHG Inventory.
PaintCare are also began conversations with its key transportation and paint processing vendors about their approaches to environmental sustainability. Equipped with this information, staff drafted an appendix to the organization’s standard vendor Request for Proposal that would require contractors to provide information about GHG emissions related to provisions of contracted services to PaintCare as well as ongoing sustainability initiatives. This information will not only potentially aid the paint and coatings industry with future climate reporting disclosure requirements, but it may also assist PaintCare with identifying new opportunities to improve its operating efficiency and environmental sustainability performance.
Program Expansion and Challenges
In 2024, expansion legislation was initiated by ACA in Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, and New Jersey. In two other states, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin and, paint stewardship legislation was initiated by motivated legislators.
In Maryland, the paint stewardship bills were filed in both houses—HB 1 and SB 325. After several years of work educating lawmakers, HB 1 passed both the House and Senate on March 29. At this writing, it is in the process of being transferred to Governor Wes Moore’s office for his signature.
ACA and PaintCare continue to work to pass authorizing legislation in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is in the second year of a two-year session. This year, the bill has gained significant support in both houses and has collected over 26 co-sponsors. Earlier this year, the bill was consolidated with two other extended producer responsibility bills (packaging and mattresses) and passed favorably out of the Joint Environment Committee. ACA is currently working to separate the bills and move them out of the Ways and Means Committee, which has historically been the obstacle for passage of paint stewardship. ACA continues to work cooperatively with MassRecycle, who has committed to work on behalf of the bill, as well as other stakeholder groups. The retail association continues to be in opposition. The bill is well-positioned for success this year, but it is still too early to tell if it will gain the necessary momentum.
In Missouri, the stewardship bill was introduced in both houses. While the House bill this year seemed to stall in committee, the Senate bill had a hearing and was favorably voted out. The bill continues to have broad support in Missouri as the Missouri Product Stewardship Council, local counties, and the Product Stewardship Institute, as well as several other advocates, testified in support. The state retail association has not taken a formal position and has adopted a neutral stance. Currently, the bill is on the calendar for floor debate in the Senate, but it is unclear when it will be called, if at all. If the bill is not called, it will be dead for this session. Missouri’s legislature adjourns on May 17.
In New Jersey, a paint stewardship bill has been introduced. Due to some personnel changes in the Governor’s office as well as in the state environmental agency, the timing was right to try again to get this bill through the legislative process. It is early in the session in New Jersey and no hearings have been held yet.
In New Hampshire, a paint stewardship bill was co-sponsored and introduced by two lawmakers without any involvement or notice to ACA. Consequently, the bill language appeared to mirror the 2012 Vermont statute. Several conversations and two working sessions with the bill sponsors were not successful in conforming the bill to ACA’s model language nor convincing these two co-sponsors to designate the bill for summer study so that it could be refined and perfected. Instead, significant amendments were drafted by the House environmental committee and without seeing the final amendments, it was voted successfully on the floor. The bill has been transferred to the Senate where it is assigned to the Energy Committee and a hearing is scheduled for April 23. The goal for this bill is to influence the Senate Energy Committee to designate it for summer study.
In Wisconsin, Representative Dave Considine introduced a paint stewardship bill that was intended to mirror ACA’s model bill. However, Wisconsin’s bill format and their legislative services office made significant changes to the bill text. Conversations with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources resulted in additional changes. While the bill was formally introduced in both the House and the Senate, it has not received a hearing. There is still the possibility for an informational hearing; however, the deadlines for passing a bill from one house to the other has already lapsed. The effort to conform the bill text to ACA’s model law will continue in the fall with the hopes of introducing a more substantive bill in 2025.
ACA also continues to address legislative efforts that may impact PaintCare’s operational programs. Legislative efforts to change the operational aspects of PaintCare continue in Rhode Island, where a bill to require the environmental oversight agency to “put out for bid” the operation of the paint stewardship program was introduced again. Once again, this proposal was included in the governor’s budget request along with proposals to restrict the level of reserves PaintCare can hold and the program’s ability to pay expenses. The budget proposal received a hearing in the Finance Committee in early March, and ACA testified in opposition. The governor’s budget has not yet been adopted. Consequently, this effort is still viable; however, as in year’s past, members of the Budget Committee appear to be weary of the governor’s repeated attacks on this program.
In Illinois, although the paint stewardship law was only adopted in June of 2023, it has become clear that amendments to the law are required in order to allow PaintCare to collect and manage oil-based paint from commercial generators. Extensive negotiations with Illinois Environmental Protection Agency did not result in any type of regulatory alternative. Consequently, bill language has been drafted and the sponsors of the original paint stewardship bills have agreed to expedite passage of the amendment as quickly as possible. The goal is to move this amendment through the legislative process quickly so that PaintCare staff have some certainty in the regulatory requirements for the collection of oil-based paint.
ACA Staff
Marjaneh Zarrehparvar
President, PaintCare
Heidi K. McAuliffe
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, ACA