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The Paint Stewardship Act creates a process for consumers to
dispose of household paint in Illinois. Under the law,
manufacturers of architectural paint will create and submit a
plan to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to
establish the program.
“Quite frankly, latex paint, which most of us are using, is not
a hazardous material so then the local municipality is stuck
with that and they actually spend a lot of money trying to
figure out what to do with that and a lot of it ends up getting
landfilled,” said state Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, the bill’s
sponsor.
Under the program, manufacturers will pay a fee to the Illinois
EPA to set up a paint collection site, service or event, which
will allow residents to drop off unused paint to specified
locations free of charge. Holmes said the collection sites or
events will be within a 15-mile radius for 90% of Illinois
residents.
Earlier this year, New York became the 11th state to pass a
paint stewardship law making the paint industry responsible for
the proper disposal of unused paint. Kelsey O’Toole is the
program coordinator. She said paint is reused, which keeps it
out of the landfills.
“All latex paint collected is going to be turned right back into
latex paint so it is separated out by color, there’s additives
put in it to bring that back up to spec, then it's repackaged
and resold,” O’Toole said.
Similar programs in other states with paint stewardship laws
include California, Minnesota and Colorado. Holmes said they
have collected over 62 million gallons of paint.
The Illinois law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024.
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