cougar town gave me an idea...

[ColJack]

so I'm watching cougar town and they had a stupid idea on there that I'm thinking might be a good one after all...

bags of paint...

In this day and age of reducing packaging, I'm thinking it might me a good idea..
saves on tins / tubs etc...
if a bag is not practical, you could use cartons like for milk.. even with the little twist off lids so you can reseal it...

I'm not a painter but don't most people use roller trays and paint kettles rather than straight from the tin?

now I know that it's not really going to be practical for the big bulk tubs of paint, but for up to 2L sizes it would work surely..

there's the issue of "well what about unused paint?" which can be addressed by suggesting the recycling of jars etc if using the bag idea, but how often do you really ever use that 1/4 of a can of paint in your garage / shed??
it's normally gone off by the time you next need it, or you never have enough so buy a new can anyway..

 

[dcdec]

Think the carton idea is better than the bag. It would be hard to stir the paint in a bag and they'd have to be pretty tough to avoid squashing and puncturing etc, also WB paints freeze and the can does offer a certain amount of protection, empty cans also make good paint kettles.

What i'd like to see is the cans made bigger so when they are shaken up the pigment is properly dispersed instead of half of it being left on the lid and i'd also like to see a 3.5 litre available on emulsions as 2.5 is often too small and 5 too much, would also be nice with the advent of WB trim paints (that are bloody expensive) is an insulated tin to prevent freezing.

I'd also like to see the paint companies giving out a lot more free samples to trade as this water based business is costing me a fortune in experimenting.

I've often thought that the VOC reduction is pretty misplaced and that the EU should have been working out ways to reduce material waste such as the example of sizing i've just given and providing recycling facilities for unused paint and cans at the trade shops, there is a product you can mix into paint and it soaks it up but its expensive when it should be heavily subsidised if the EU really did give a :"_+.

 

[ColJack]

I was thinking more of the DIY market, but for freezing paint, if they had bags then they could put them in insulated boxes??? sort of like a reverse coolbox?
there's the storage space saving too, if you had square cartons then you can get more in a smaller space..

there's the "paint systems" applications too..
imagine something like the paint pod but instead of the container you click in a bag with a built in valve / nozel .. once sucked dry you just swap the bag..

 

[elrobbo82]

could be a tad messy trying to pour the left over paint back in a bag though.

 

[misterhelpful]

You could be on the road to a fortune there ColJack so get the patent in PDQ.

Also agree with dcdec that a 3.5l or 4l can/bottle/bag/carton would be a better size.

BTW, Cougar Town gives me some ideas..., but I'll keep those to myself!!

 

[ColJack]

could be a tad messy trying to pour the left over paint back in a bag though.

you don't.. you buy more bags of a smaller size and only open what you need.. the rest you take back unopened..

make the paint in one size only and apply a "bulk buy / multi buy" discount at the till.. ( IE it's "cheaper" at the moment to buy a 5L can than it is to buy 2 x 2.5L, but you end up throwing away / storing the 1-2L you never use.. you could take those 2L back with your recipt and get a refund based on the discount you got.. )

if the trade need bigger volumes, then you get into the "bag in a box" type thing.. like boxes of wine.. maybe complete with the tap to make pouring out into the trays and kettles easier..

 

[mathewleo]

So the paint is going to be left over. Why not sell it to someone who is in need.

 

[sparkwright]

I think dropping the bags of paint could prove messy, and could also get punctured by tools etc in the van.

Would also prove inconvenient if you only want a few brushfuls, and you have the problem of stirring it.

Nowadays everyone is anti-plastic bags, if the 5p charge at the supermarket is anything to go by.

Cleaning up and recycling the old tins/tubs is the way to go. No need to melt them down and re-make them.

They should offer an incentive to return all empty paint cans, like the money you used to get back for the empty beer and Lucozade bottles.

 

[elrobbo82]

i agree sparkwright an incentive would be great but the trade centers in my area charge you £1 per tin and will only take there own brands back. not much of an incentive as it starts to get quite expensive after a while. why would you pay a trade center to get rid of the waste when you can get rid for free.

 

[sparkwright]

i agree sparkwright an incentive would be great but the trade centers in my area charge you £1 per tin and will only take there own brands back. not much of an incentive as it starts to get quite expensive after a while. why would you pay a trade center to get rid of the waste when you can get rid for free.

I mean the trade centre or the manufacturer should pay the customer something like 5 or 10p for each returned empty can, which they can clean up or recycle from scratch.

 

[elrobbo82]

as said i agree. would be a great idea if they would but i don't see it at the moment though. for the trade centers to give incentives will no doubt raise the cost of the product. 5 - 10p won't be much incentive either as it could cost more in fuel alone. also can be inconvenient storing a load of empty cans to make the trip worth while.

 

[sparkwright]

as said i agree. would be a great idea if they would but i don't see it at the moment though. for the trade centers to give incentives will no doubt raise the cost of the product. 5 - 10p won't be much incentive either as it could cost more in fuel alone. also can be inconvenient storing a load of empty cans to make the trip worth while.

Yes, you wouldn't make a special trip to do it.

But this would be a great way to recycle. We all like to make a little money from not really doing anything. There's so much stuff in this country that could be recycled but isn't, not so much because the public are too lazy to sort it out, but because some items simply aren't asked for by councils and manufacturers.

A crude incentive of 5p for a paint can would certainly make people save most of them, because we all have this something for nothing attitude.

I mentioned the Lucozade bottles earlier. That was recycling at it's best because they were simply cleaned and re-used. They weren't crushed and reformed.

 

[elrobbo82]

its my understanding that my local trade center only sends the tins to be cleaned and reused. i don't think that they reform them. also to reuse the tins the remaining amounts of paint have to be disposed of which will also incur a cost. if a certain company is say dumping lots of paint (environmentally damaging waste) then they will surely have to pay a premium that will be passed on to the consumer meaning that the overall cost of the products will go up. probably more than the incentive given.

 

[sparkwright]

Could the 'not very old' paint be recycled in some way?

 

[elrobbo82]

probably not due to possible contamination. also the dried paint has to be removed and disposed of as well. great idea in theory but maybe out of the realms of possibility at the moment.