A RATHER shaggy celebrity will be calling in at Beeston and Newark Household Waste Recycling Centres next Monday (March 4). Don the Dulux dog will be helping to celebrate the extension of Community RePaint Nottinghamshire – a partnership between Community RePaint, a non-profit organisation, Nottinghamshire County Council and Veolia Environmental Services (the council’s waste contractors).
Until now, the scheme has accepted unwanted paint from members of the public at Calverton and Worksop Household Waste Recycling Centres and then passes any good quality reusable paint on to groups and charities to help them with refurbishment, renovation and training projects that they’re involved in.
Now the County Council is extending the scheme to two more HWRCs – Newark and Beeston – and is also relocating the Worksop scheme to Warsop to make it more accessible to a larger number of residents.
The scheme has given away more than 12,000 litres of free paint to groups since its launch in 2010 and is keen to help even more, with over 160 voluntary organisations have signed up for the scheme so far. Occasionally, the scheme is also opened up to members of the public on designated open evenings. More than 4,000 litres of reusable paint has been given away at these events, making the total amount redistributed to an impressive16,000 litres.
“More than 366 million litres of paint are sold each year, of which 55 million are unused, stored or just thrown away,” says Coun Richard Butler, chairman of the County Council’s environment and sustainability committee. “Paint cannot go down the drain or in to landfill because it is harmful to the environment – the Community RePaint Nottinghamshire scheme means that people can donate their unwanted or surplus paint to the participating HWRCs where it is sorted and stored safely.”
“The scheme has been very successful since its introduction and has made possible the reuse of a significant volume of paint. Not only that, it has helped enormously a large number of community groups and voluntary organisations across the county.”
“Extending it to Newark and Beeston, as well as relocating the Worksop scheme to Warsop, will mean that a much larger number of people will be able to use the scheme and will significantly increase the volume of reusable paint being captured and distributed.”
A wide range of groups have already taken advantage of the free paint including Framework Housing association that provides housing, support and care for homeless and vulnerable people; Rumbletums, a community café that provides work experience placements for young people with learning difficulties and William Lilley Infant School.