Barry Hicken, Minister of Environmental Resources and Neville McKittrick, President of Northumberland Paints today announced a one-day paint recovery collection for householders to take place on Saturday, October 26. On that day unused household latex and oil paint and stain will be accepted at four locations across Prince Edward Island. Other sponsors who will assist with the collection are the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association, Southeast Environmental Association, Capital Region Environmental Advisory Committee, and the East Prince Waste Management Commission. Financial assistance has also been received from the Shell Environmental Fund.
Mr. Hicken commended all the participants in the project noting that, "Collection of unused household paint will lessen the load on our landfill sites while ridding Island homes and cottages of a product that if disposed of improperly has the potential to cause environmental problems." The Minister went on to add that, "Environmental stewardship takes many forms and a joint endeavour that involves industry stewardship of a product as well as community and government cooperation leads the way for Islanders to take personal action to protect our Island's environment. "
Prompted by results obtained earlier this year in a recycling project conducted on unused oil-based paints, Northumberland Paints has enthusiastically spearheaded the organization of a paint collection day. The original recycling project as well as this second phase have both received assistance from Dr. Kirk Brown of the National Research Council. Neville McKittrick, President of Northumberland Paints sees the collection day as an opportunity to "close the loop" on paint products. This means not only producing new paint but recycling unused paint, regardless of brand name, into new paint products. He also sees another benefit. "We recognize our responsibility to be good stewards of our product and we also see the potential to create new products from the paint collected, allowing us to investigate the possibility of extending employment within our industry."
Unused oil and latex paint and stain from households will be accepted at four locations across the Island. These include Northumberland Paints, Charlottetown, the Town Maintenance Building, Montague, the East Prince Waste Management Facility, Wellington Centre, and the Crossroads Fire Hall in Stratford. Automotive, marine and spray paint will not be accepted at the drop off sites. Times and locations of the drop off will be advertised. The drop-off sites will be staffed by volunteers from all the sponsoring groups and Department of Environmental Resources staff will be present at all locations to receive the paint. All paint collected will be transported to Northumberland Paints for recycling. The Department of Environmental Resources will oversee the disposal of any unacceptable paint product that is collected.