Bloomington-Normal residents no longer have to wait for a hazardous waste collection event to get rid of leftover paint.
Six drop-off sites now accept paint, stain and varnish for free through PaintCare, a statewide recycling program:
- Sherwin-Williams, 1906 E. College Ave., Normal
- Sherwin-Williams, 115 Krispy Kreme Dr., Bloomington
- Paint Depot, 2407 G.E. Rd., Bloomington
- Ace Hardware of Normal, 204 E. College Ave.
- Habitat for Humanity of McLean County ReStore, 1402 W. Washington St., Bloomington
- RP Lumber, 2440 S Main St., Bloomington
PaintCare is a nonprofit created by the American Coatings Association. It has more than 370 year-round drop-off sites across Illinois, including about 30 in the Bloomington and Peoria areas.
Kevin Callarman, PaintCare's Illinois program manager, said the sites are permanent and are run by paint retailers that volunteered to host collection bins.
"They're open most every day and they're ready to accept leftover paint from households and businesses," Callarman said.
Becoming a drop-off site is voluntary, he said, and storage space is often the deciding factor.
Demand
The program gives McLean County residents a permanent option for one type of household hazardous waste.
Until now, paint was typically collected at temporary household hazardous waste events run by a municipality. Callarman said that puts a heavy load on local governments.
"There is a huge burden on local municipalities who have a one-day collection event for household waste or they might have a household hazardous waste facility that collects leftover paint," Callarman said.
Paint makes up much of what comes into those events, he said, and its weight makes it expensive to dispose of.
"Paint is very voluminous," Callarman said. "It's very, very costly because of the weight to get rid of it. All taxpayers have to pay for that, unfortunately."
The scale of the problem is large. The paint industry sells about 800 million gallons of paint nationwide each year, and PaintCare estimates about 80 million gallons of that becomes leftover paint, Callarman said.
"So it's a huge issue. Everybody has it in their garage," he said. "In fact, I have about eight or 10 gallons in my garage that I'm ready to get rid of."
Callarman said the goal is to keep that paint out of landfills and off local governments' books.
"We shift the burden away from local governments and we have more consumer responsibility," he said. "It gives the paint more life because it's being recycled or donated and not just going directly to a landfill."
The Normal-based Ecology Action Center is still raising roughly $6 million for a permanent hazardous waste disposal site. Until a local site opens, the nonprofit holds periodic, appointment-only collection events for items such as automotive fluids, aerosols and harsh cleaners.
Callarman said PaintCare is in contact with the Ecology Action Center and hopes to make its future facility a paint drop-off site.
"We look forward to an eventual partnership with them once their facility is open," he said.
Where the paint goes
PaintCare sites take latex and oil-based paint, primer, stain, sealer and varnish. Each site accepts up to 5 gallons per visit. Households and businesses with 100 gallons or more can request a free pickup.
Callarman said latex paint is "highly recyclable." Once collected, it is sent to a processor that turns it into new paint, which is sold at stores across the country. Habitat for Humanity sometimes sells the recycled paint, which costs less than new paint.
Illinois passed the Paint Stewardship Act unopposed in 2023. The law requires PaintCare to place a drop-off site within 15 miles of at least 90% of the state's population, a goal Callarman said the program has met.
"We actually kind of crushed it," he said.
Dropping off paint is free. The program is paid for by a fee on new paint sold in Illinois:
- Nothing for a half pint or smaller.
- 45 cents for containers larger than a half pint and smaller than a gallon.
- 95 cents for 1 to 2 gallons.
- $1.95 for more than 2 gallons up to 5 gallons.
"It's not a deposit. It's not a tax. It is a PaintCare fee," Callarman said.
The fee covers collection, processing and public education.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency oversees the program.
PaintCare operates in 12 states, including Illinois, and Washington, D.C. It says most of the paint it collects is latex, which gets remixed into recycled paint, and it has collected about 92.2 million gallons nationwide.
For a full list of sites and accepted products, visit paintcare.org/IL.
