Paints and Chemicals
Environmental benefits: Household hazardous waste such as paint, solvents and garden chemicals may cause environmental damage, so you should not pour them down the drain.
How to recycle: Contact your local council to check if there are facilities at any civic amenity sites. Or you can donate half empty tins of paint to an exchange scheme.
Community Repaint is a network of paint reuse schemes across the UK. They collect leftover paint and redistribute it to those who need it but cannot afford it.
Unwanted household or garden chemicals can sometimes be recycled – the virtual house on National Hazardous Household Waste Forum has more details.
Useful links:
Community Repaint
National Hazardous Household Waste Forum
Team Green Britain and London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd (LOCOG) do not endorse any of the products, companies, organisations, opinions or websites that have been mentioned in this article. The content of this article has merely been provided as background to, or discussion on, various topical issues relating to the environment and it is not necessarily representative of the views of Team Green Britain and LOCOG. Further, any figures and calculations noted in this article are estimates (unless otherwise specified), and may vary in light of numerous factors and readers are advised to undertake their own research in relation to the facts and figures applicable to their particular circumstance.