The environmental impact of leftover paint is increasingly becoming a global concern. Paint is considered a difficult waste due to its liquid properties and also may contain solvents that can lead to groundwater and surface water pollution. Almost 80 million gallons of decorative paint is sold in the United Kingdom every year. An estimated 13-15 million gallons of this remains unused, as homeowners over buy. This paint is then left in sheds and garages for a number of years before eventually being disposed of in landfill.
With a background as an industrial chemist and 25 years of experience working in the coatings industry, Keith Harrison set up a pilot plant where he experimented with the possibility of recycling emulsion paint. After years of research, Harrison developed a process that enabled waste emulsion paint to be converted back to high-quality paint. He then set up Newlife Paints in 2008, but not without some challenges. There was difficulty in getting the Environmental Agency to agree that recycling waste emulsion paint is a low-risk activity, thus limiting the tons per week that could be treated. However, a new regulation was eventually put into place that enables “treatment of up to 5 tons a week of nonhazardous paint for re-use as full specification paint.”