With Spring just around the corner I am thinking about Spring cleaning around my house. Over the 15 or so years I have lived in my home one of the things I have managed to collect and not dispose of is old paint. Every year I say I will gather it up and go to the local hazardous waste day for my county. There I would surrender it all so it could be properly throw out. Turns out for the last 15 or so years I have been misinformed about paint disposal. All of this came to light recently when I added a couple dozen cans to the pile after helping a friend clean out a basement.

Yes household hazardous waste such as stains, cleansers, antifreeze and such should be disposed of at collection event (details at the link below) but not Latex paint. All this time I had been thinking I can't throw this paint in the trash and it turns out I am wrong. After some research I now understand how to dispose of my paint without harming the environment or damaging property. Latex paints are mostly water and should be dried out. Then put in bags and throw out with the trash. The reason you dry it out is so that the wet paint doesn't get opened in the truck therefore leaking all over the road or worst on the floor of the transfer site.

Obviously, you should check with your local municipality or garbage carrier for their prefered method but I did my research at the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency. The UCRRA has a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event schedule in Kingston for April 14th. You are required to make an appointment. And no latex paint will be accepted.

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