SALEM, OR – Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has signed into law the nation’s first program requiring paint manufacturers to safely manage leftover latex- and oil-based paint from consumer and contractor painting jobs. The law is expected to result in the proper management of an estimated 800,000 gallons of leftover paint each year, providing Oregon governments with service valued at over $6 million.

An estimated 10 percent of the more than 750 million gallons of architectural paint sold each year in the United States is unused. The new system will include the cost of safely managing that leftover paint in the purchase price of new paint and will set up an industry-led program to reduce paint waste, increase reuse and recycling, and safely dispose of remaining unusable paint.

This new law ties into the wider producer-responsibility movement. Producer responsibility means manufacturers internalize the end-of-life management costs of their products rather than have government set up and fund collection programs for waste products.

For a fact sheet on the Oregon paint bill and more information on the national paint dialogue, visit www.productstewardship.us/PaintNationalDialogue.