New social enterprise salvages 2.5 tonnes of old paint in a few weeks

The Revive Paint team hopes to prevent up to 45 tonnes of paint from being incinerated each year, putting it back on the shelves for resale

Peter Buckley and Tara Mulhall in their paint recycling facility at the Revive Paint Centre, Education and Training Campus, Redemption Road, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

Meet the team that is giving old paint a new lease of life and saving the environment one colourful tin at a time.

A new social enterprise, circular economy business in Cork has, in just a few weeks, diverted 2.5 tonnes of old paint which was destined for incineration overseas onto the shelves of its new shop for resale.

And the Revive Paint team hopes within three years to be diverting 45-tonnes of old paint annually from incineration for resale, said Caitriona Courtney, the energy hub manager at Northside Community Enterprise  Insulation at Farranferris, where the project is based.

Mary Walsh, an environmental awareness officer with Cork City Council, said: “This project reduces the waste stream, it gets reused locally and it creates jobs. It makes sense all round.”

A similar scheme is now being set up in Limerick.

The Revive Paint project is an initiative of Cork City and County councils, and is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency  Local Authority Prevention Network, which aims to tackle a significant problem-waste stream.

An estimated 190 tonnes of paint is collected at civic amenity sites annually. Most of it has to be exported for treatment. But Ms Walsh said about 60% of this waste paint is water-based, and much of it can be reused and upcycled through Revive Paint.

Northside Community Enterprise and Cycle Sense in Skibbereen, Co Cork now bring the old paint to the new paint reuse and upcycling depot at Farranferris where Revive Paint staff Tara Mulhall and Peter Buckley process it for resale in 5.6ltr Revive Paint-branded pots.

Ms Mulhall said it undergoes a rigorous quality control process to ensure that only suitable paint is reused.

The pots retail at the special offer price of just €10 until the end of this month, National Reuse Month, before the price will rise slightly to €14.75: still well below the cost of the big brand paints.

Mayor of the County of Cork Gillian Coughlan urged people to try this more sustainable paint product.

“It’s such a great initiative and an example of how we should be looking more at the values of the past to solve today’s problems,” she said.

Lord mayor of Cork Colm Kelleher said the two social enterprises epitomise the circular economy at its very best.

The water-based paint is available in a variety of colours and can be bought at the shop in Farranferris, which is open 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, and Cycle Sense in West Cork. It will also be on sale at a market in St Peter’s on North Main St on October 21-23. www.nce.ie or www.cyclesense.ie.

Meanwhile, Cork City Council in conjunction with Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities is facilitating a mattress drop-off day at the council’s civic amenity site in Tramore Valley Park on October 20.

Householders can dispose of unwanted mattresses for €5 between 9am and 1pm.

Once mattresses are deconstructed the components are recycled. The steel bed springs become reusable steel, the polyurethane foam is recycled for industry and the cloth and polyester synthetic fibres are reused as residual fuel disposal for industry.