Categories: News

Our scheme in Mid Ulster is run by Mid Ulster District Council. It is operated through the network of local Household Recycling Centres (HRCs). At this site, you can drop off leftover paint from your home or collect paint for your home or local project.

Here is the full list within the Mid Ulster District Council area:

• Cookstown Recycling Centre
• Drumcoo Recycling Centre
• Magherafelt Recycling Centre

 

Drop off leftover paint

If you are a resident within Mid Ulster district and you have leftover paint from your home that you’d like to pass on for reuse, visit the drop-off point on-sites at the three above HRCs, to leave your paint. Groups and individuals will then be able to access the site to collect the paint and use it locally.

As drop-off points are run by the Council, the site is unable to accept paint donations from businesses. If you are a trader, retailer, manufacturer or other business with leftover paint, click here to find out how you can donate your leftover paint for reuse through the Community RePaint network.

Please note, if you live outside Mid Ulster district, you will not be eligible to access the site. If there is no drop-off point in your local borough, you will need to contact your local Council for guidance on what to do with your leftover paint.

Collect paint for your home or project

If you are an individual or group from the local area you can get free paint from this scheme.

If you would like to know what volume and range of paint colours we have at your local HRC, please visit them in person to browse what is on offer. The HRC staff will guide you to the RePaint shed on site.

Please provide a short summary of what you do at RBH why the organisation became a Community RePaint scheme?
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) is a tenant and employee co-owned mutual housing society, and we have been a part of Community RePaint since 2014 and opened our paint shop to the public in 2017. I have worked for RBH for over 2 years now, as our reuse project coordinator looking after our paint and furniture reuse services.

Redistributing leftover paint via Community RePaint Rochdale enables us to support our local communities with accessing paint at an affordable cost. It also enables us to help reduce waste, and together with our furniture reuse service and food pantries we prevented 112 tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere last year.

Can you tell us what your typical working day is like at Community RePaint Rochdale and possibly share your top tip for managing the paint shop?
For us, a typical day starts with restocking the shelves in the main shop from our backstock. We do this every morning before the shop opens as there are always gaps on our shelves from the previous day. We take this time in the morning to also process stock to ensure it is suitable for reuse and apply our colour swatches. The shop opens at 10am until 1pm, then 2pm-4pm. During this period, the shop is always busy with customers. As a small shop we can provide each customer with guidance on which paints are suitable for their needs, making sure they get exactly the right paint and quantity for their project.

Our top tip is to ensure that customers can easily find what they are looking for, we have achieved this by adding clearly marked areas in the shop, we also have signage that explains the properties and uses for different types of paint.

What have been your scheme’s biggest achievements thus far?
We are always striving to improve and expand. We have increased awareness of our services by using social media and pop-up events. As a result, our customer base is growing all the time. We proudly provide work experience placements for our local college students, and we have volunteering opportunities for the public.

Since opening in 2014, we have prevented over 58,000 litres of paint from going to waste and redistributed over 46,000 to the local community!

Watch our Community RePaint Rochdale tour video below:

@communityrepaint Head to our website to find your nearest Community RePaint scheme! communityrepaint.org.uk #diy #budgetdiy #budgethome #fyp #homerenovation #communityrepaint ♬ ALMOST HOME – Mad Adix, Marc Steinmeier

Do you have any specific stories from the community you’d like to share?
We provide regular support to various local community groups and charities, allowing them to access paint affordably to brighten up community spaces. Recently we have supported lots of different projects by providing paint that would otherwise been unaffordable. The projects we have supported recently include a dementia garden for Springhill Hospice, buddy and first aid benches in a local school playground, a mural at a local youth centre and a community garden.

Here are some photos from projects using paint from Community RePaint Rochdale:

Do you have any painting tips that you can share with us?
If you have paint left in a tin that you want to keep for future use, ensure that you remove any access paint from around the rim and lid so that it can be fully closed. If air can get to the paint, it will spoil it. You can also add a layer of cling film under the lid to prevent drying out. Store tins away from direct sunlight and in a frost-free environment. If there is only a small amount left in the tin, consider transferring into something smaller, such as a jam jar. And of course, any surplus that you are not going to use, donate this to your local Community RePaint drop-off point.

What’s next for Community RePaint Rochdale?
We are working towards building new relationships with local retailers and recycling centres to ensure we can save even more paint from landfill. We are also constantly reviewing our processing and storage of stock to make sure that we can maintain a varied supply of paint types for our customers.

We’re also excited to continue to work and grow with the Community RePaint Network team. Over the past year, Network Coordinator Dan Everard from Resource Futures, who manages the network, has visited our scheme to provide support and guidance. This has resulting in us now having our back stock completely organised and easy to maintain going forward. Thanks to Dan and the rest of the central network team for their support.

 

You can contact Community RePaint Rochdale by emailing paintshop@rbh.org.uk, or calling 07816 078 357.

They can be found at 271 Olney in Freehold, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, OL11 4LQ and are open Monday – Friday: 10am – 1pm / 2pm – 4pm.

For more information about Community RePaint Rochdale, click here to view their scheme page.

Staff and volunteers from Community RePaint Cheltenham have been collecting paint that would otherwise have gone for disposal and redistributed it to individuals, charities and community groups at affordable prices to help brighten homes and community spaces.

Reclaim strives to provides furniture, electrical appliances and paint for an affordable price. Not only does the shop help our planet and reduce the unnecessary waste in landfill, but it also helps low-income households and families. All profits raised from the Reclaim store goes back into the charity to help them create a sustainable future. Vision 21 is an independent sustainability charity focused on Gloucestershire. It is as much a social organisation as it is an environmental one, helping people to improve their quality of life as well as their living environment.

The Community RePaint scheme collects useable, leftover paint from businesses, retailers and paint manufacturers in the local area and in the past 10 years alone, the scheme has redistributed over 19,000 litres of leftover paint to local communities, saving money and brightening the lives in Cheltenham and surrounding communities.

“The aim of celebrating our birthday is not only to mark this important milestone, but also to raise awareness of the scheme locally so more people can benefit,” said Reclaim Manager Dave Twyning. “Community RePaint Cheltenham offers a simple, local solution to the problem of waste paint. By reusing leftover paint in our community, we can bring a splash of colour to the lives of those who need it the most and help to protect the planet by preventing perfectly good paint from being disposed of.”

The UK wide Community RePaint network manager, Martin Pearse, reflected “Community RePaint Cheltenham have done a fantastic job over the last 18 years. The celebrations provide a great opportunity to recognise all the hard work that has gone into making the scheme such a success and to reflect on all their achievements which has brightened community spaces and homes over the years. We are excited to continue supporting the scheme and look forward to seeing what they accomplish in years to come.”

If you are a trader, manufacturer or retailer with leftover paint you can contact the scheme to find out how they can help you. Unfortunately, they cannot accept leftover paint from householders.

If you need paint to redecorate your home, or if you are a charity or community group in need of paint for a project, get in touch with Community RePaint Cheltenham to find out more reclaim@vision21.org.uk / 01242 228 823. They are based at 25b Lansdown Industrial Estate, Off Gloucester Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 8PL.

Staff from Community RePaint Wirral have been collecting paint that would otherwise have gone for disposal and redistributed it to individuals, charities and community groups at affordable prices to help brighten homes and community spaces.

Reicpro Wirral is no stranger to reusing materials. They are a multi-award-winning business set up to reduce the amount of waste being created by the construction industry. They accept donations of surplus building materials, office furniture, and also paint, which are all sold into the local community for a fraction of their retail price. They also collect paint from several recycling centres across the North West of England, as well as in the West Midlands.

The sheds, garages and cupboards of Merseyside are holding enough colour to paint towns numerous times over. In the past 10 years, Community RePaint Wirral has collected over 863,000 litres of leftover paint, redistributing it to local communities, saving money and brightening the lives in the region and surrounding communities.

Community RePaint Wirral is part of the UK wide Community RePaint network, a network of paint reuse schemes working to solve the issue of the estimated 50 million litres of paint that go to waste in the UK each year. In 2022, the schemes in the network collected 458,351 litres of paint from individuals, retailers, decorators, and manufacturers, and redistributed 285,495 litres of paint to individuals, families, community groups and charities, adding colour to the lives of over 245,806 people.

The scheme is also one of two Community RePaint remanufacturing centres, taking paint reuse to the next level. Supported by AkzoNobel, the owners of Dulux, Recipro Wirral is using pioneering technology to transform ‘waste’ paint into a remanufactured, high-quality paint, sold at a community friendly price available for UK-wide delivery. This process enables larger quantities of leftover and surplus paint to be collected, remanufactured, and put into new container, branded as ‘ReColour’.

The paint has brightened the spaces of hundreds of community organisations, including stables at the Horses and Ponies Association, beach facilities at Friends of Cullen, and a fitness studio at Quest Taekwondo. Another beneficiary of ReColour paint was Darlington based Winston Village Hall, who said: “We have been really pleased with the service we have received from Recipro Wirral. The discount on the paint we needed to refurbish our Village Hall has been really helpful in keeping the costs down but still being able to access high quality paint.”

“The aim of celebrating our birthday is not only to mark this important milestone, but also to raise awareness of the scheme locally so more people can benefit,” said Director Rebecca Close. “Community RePaint Wirral offers a simple, local solution to the problem of waste paint. By reusing leftover paint in our community, we can bring a splash of colour to the lives of those who need it the most and help to protect the planet by preventing perfectly good paint from being disposed of.”

The UK wide Community RePaint network manager, Martin Pearse, reflected “Community RePaint Wirral have done a fantastic job over the last 10 years. The celebrations provide a great opportunity to recognise all the hard work that has gone into making the scheme such a success and to reflect on all their achievements which has brightened community spaces and homes over the years. We are excited to continue supporting the scheme and look forward to seeing what they accomplish in years to come.”

If you are a trader, manufacturer or retailer with leftover paint you can contact the scheme to find out how they can help you. If you are a householder, visit CommunityRePaint.org.uk, click ‘I have leftover paint’ and enter your postcode to find your nearest drop-off point.

If you need paint to redecorate your home, or if you are a charity or community group in need of paint for a project, get in touch with Community RePaint Wirral to find out more  0151 639 0651 / rebecca@recipro-uk.com. They are based a Unit 2 Britannia House, Dock Road, Wallasey, Wirral, CH41 1DF.

The South Access Reuse and Recycling Centre and Kings Road Reuse and Recycling Centre have been added to the Community RePaint Network. These are in addtional to the reuse and recycling centres managed by London Energy Limited, on behalf of North London Waste Authority, in Camden, Barnet and Harringey.

Here is the full list within the North London Waste Authority area:

• Western Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, Haringey
• Summers Lane Reuse and Recycling Centre, Barnet
• Regis Road Recycling Centre, Camden
• Kings Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, Chingford 
• South Access Reuse and Recycling Centre, Walthamstow

 

Note: residents cannot take paint to recycling centres at Hornsey Street (Islington) or Barrowell Green (Enfield), but can access the centres listed above.

Drop off leftover paint

If you are a resident living within the London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington or Waltham Forest, and you have leftover paint from your home that you’d like to pass on for reuse, visit the reuse and recycling centres to drop off your leftover paint. Groups and individuals will then be able to access the site to collect the paint and use it locally.

As this drop-off point is run by the local authority, the site is unable to accept paint donations from businesses. If you are a trader, retailer, manufacturer or other business with leftover paint, click here to find out how you can donate your leftover paint for reuse through the Community RePaint network.

You do not need to book in advance if you want to visit this reuse and recycling centre by car, bicycle or on foot. If you are coming in a van, trailer or stripped vehicle, you need to book in advance using NLWA’s van booking system. This includes any vehicle without seats fitted in the back including minibuses with seats removed and crew cab type (pick-up) vehicles.

Please note, if you live outside of the North London Waste Authority area, you will not be eligible to access the site. If there is no drop-off point in your local authority area you will need to contact your local authority for guidance on what to do with your leftover paint. You can also adapt this template letter to encourage your local authority to consider collecting leftover paint for reuse at their sites.

Collect paint for your home or project

If you are an individual or group living within the North London Waste Authority area, you can pick up free paint from this scheme. We recommend that you contact the local authority using the details given above or check their website for more details on the process you need to follow to get the paint.

You can find out if you have a nearby drop off point where you are in the UK by clicking here.

And if you’re looking for paint for your next project, find your nearest scheme to pick up paint here.

Network Manager, Martin Pearse, was interviewed, raising viewers’ awareness of paint waste, how the network operates, and how viewers can get involved. The feature was part of the BBC Morning Live TV programme, shown to an estiamted 1.2 million viewers!

Paul Jones from Community RePaint Wirral was also featured, giving an insight into ReColour remanufactured paint . The piece also showcased regular users of the network’s remanufactured ReColour paint, Trades4Care , and their most recent project in the North-East of England.

If you missed it, click here to watch the episode. Community RePaint is featured approximately 23 minutes into the programme. The programme is available for viewing on BBC iPlayer for the next 11 months.

Scott, what do you do at New Start Highland, how did you get involved with the Community RePaint network, and why you became a Community RePaint scheme?

I work for a social enterprise / charity called New Start Highland, whose aim is to help tackle homelessness, poverty and long-term unemployment in the Sottish Highlands. I am a fully qualified painter and decorator and work at New Start Highland as a painting trainer while also running our Community RePaint scheme.

In my role, I work with people who are looking to get back into work or have an interest in painting and are looking to learn basic decorating and upcycling skills. Alongside this, with the assistance of trainees at New Start Highland, I also run our Community RePaint scheme, assisting customers find the best paint for their project.

The scheme was started before I joined the team at New Start Highland and predominantly aims to redistribute leftover paint to vulnerable people in the Highlands, linking to New Start Highland’s own mission. For a very long time, our organisation was the host of Scotland’s only Community RePaint scheme, but there are now also additional schemes in Glasgow and Arbroath.

Scott Clelland at Community RePaint Highlands

 

Can you tell us what your typical working day is like and possibly share your top tip for managing your business and Community RePaint scheme?

Each day I work with various different trainees to help them develop new skills and improve existing ones while on their path to a new career. Working with paint is a great way to help with this, as when the trainees see the results of a finished project, it gives them a great feeling of accomplishment. Whilst working with us, each trainee’s attendance to sessions is monitored, so that they can share a timesheet with future employers, to show how good their attendance has been, giving them an advantage to a new job over other candidates.

At the moment, our main focus is upcycling, and trainees use paint from our Community RePaint scheme, that’s been passed on for reuse by local businesses, in their different projects. Alongside this, every time we receive a paint offer at our Community RePaint scheme, our trainees help with the process to progress each paint offer, quality checking and sorting the paint to get it ready for redistribution. Once processed and sorted, the paint is displayed on the shelves at our Community RePaint shop and local schools, charities and clients of ours who use our housing support team can then access and pick up the paint at affordable prices for their home and community projects.

This trainee has since gone on to work within a local council.

 

Over the last 15 years what have been your scheme’s biggest achievements?

Throughout the last 15 years, we have really worked hard to develop the scheme. Most months now, we distribute at least 500 litres of leftover paint back into the local community, helping individuals, families, community groups and other organisations repaint and refresh their homes and community venues.

Do you have any stories from the community you’d like to share?

A few years ago, Gledfield Primary School requested our help to repaint the school’s sheds and benches – it was brilliant project and the outdoor structures were refreshed with a new coat of paint in a really cost effective way. Find out more about this past project here.  

Do you have any painting tips that you can share with us?

If you are new to painting, my biggest painting tip is to always start with a job you feel comfortable with, and once completed build up over time to tackling the bigger jobs. Always make sure to use paint in the correct order, missing out undercoat will only come back to cause you problems in the future.

What’s next for Community RePaint Highlands?

In years to come we want to help divert more paint from waste and  helping as many people as we can in the highlands.

For more information about Community RePaint Highlands, click here to view their scheme page.

Shetland Arts work to promote, support and develop art in all forms across Shetland, so joining the network to enable paint reuse in Shetland, complements their ongoing work well.

The scheme stocks full and part-full containers of paint passed on for reuse by local householders, traders, retailers and manufacturers, which is then processed and made available for the general public, community groups and charities to purchase, from £2 per litre. A perfect paint option for those in the area looking to redecorate without breaking the bank, while preventing leftover paint from going to waste.

To pick up paint for your project simply visit the scheme at its premises located at the Shetland Arts Development Agency in Mareel during its opening hours, Tuesday-Sunday, 9am-11pm.

Stock at Community RePaint schemes does vary throughout the year depending on what paint has recently been passed on for reuse by local businesses, traders and/or waste contractors in the area, so if you are looking for specific paint types or colours, we recommend contacting the scheme directly ahead of visiting, to find out if they have the paint you’re looking for in stock.

If you live in the area and have leftover paint in good condition you’d like to pass on for reuse to the scheme, simply drop off your unwanted paint at one of Community RePaint Shetland’s collection points (at the scheme or at the SIC’s Gremista Waste Management Facility) and Community RePaint Shetland will process it. Find out more here. 

 

Community RePaint is an award-winning paint reuse network, sponsored by Dulux, that provides a solution to the problem of over 50 million litres of paint being wasted in the UK each year. The network’s schemes collect, process and redistribute paint at an affordable cost to benefit individuals, families, communities and charities in need.

Find all details of our Community RePaint Shetland scheme here.

Carolyn, what do you do at Prosperity Matters and why did you become a Community RePaint scheme?

Prosperity Matters was set up 12 years ago to provide advice, support, digital assistance and 1-1 coaching to people looking to get back into work or setting up a new enterprise. As a company, we are also passionate about reuse and run a series of creative workshops to upcycle different materials.

We realised how much reusable paint was being disposed of in Cornwall, and as a result, joined the Community RePaint network in 2017 to prevent this paint from going to waste. We collect leftover and surplus paint from local businesses and decorating centres, and redistribute this for reuse in the local area, by selling it on at affordable prices to householders, artists, schools and charities.

Our Community RePaint scheme can be found alongside our Fill Good Zero Waste Store on Stennack Road, providing a full eco-shopping experience.

Alongside our paint shop, we also provide free food baskets to the community, run a food club that stocks affordable larder items, as well as hosting a small charity shop and drop-in IT Centre, through which we provide support with Universal Credit, PIP appeals, divorce, probate, HMRC issues, home office visas and the Windrush scheme.

Can you tell us what your typical working day is like and possibly share your top tip for managing your business?

I always start the day by corresponding with customers and businesses that have been in contact to enquire about purchasing paint, or are interested in donating their leftover paint to us. During opening hours, the paint shop is always very busy so I tend to be serving customers, who travel from all over Cornwall to visit us, and running upcycling and reuse workshops.

We also offer a delivery service for paint, for those who cannot travel to pick up paint from us, so I arrange this with customers who need it. We have a good relationship with our local community and work to support individuals in the area, whether it be with paint, tools, food, clothing or emergency situations.

My top tip for managing the paint shop is to ensure all communications are completed on time during opening hours. This means customers can come to collect their orders when we are open or arrange to pick them up the next day. It also allows me time to focus on other projects taking place at Prosperity Matters and gives me a bit of me time too.

What have been your scheme’s biggest achievements thus far?

Our most pleasurable achievements have been making partnerships with our decorator merchants, home stores, local building companies, housing associations and the local council. We are very proud to bring high-quality paint to the community, who now prefer to shop with us due to our low prices, high-quality paint and our work to always find our customers the paint they need.

Another big achievement is our successful move from a small shop in Truro, to our larger premises in St Austell. It has allowed us to redistribute for reuse larger quantities of paint, and become a ‘hub’ for the local community to shop more environmentally friendly, as well as learn new skills.

Do you have any stories from the community you’d like to share?

During our five years at Prosperity Paint Hub, we have provided private and free furniture painting workshop sessions to the local community on a weekly basis. These sessions provide local individuals with skills to recycle, repurpose and reuse household furniture and items, bringing homes up to date, while upskilling local residents and providing them with an activity to positively boost health and well being.

Do you have any painting tips that you can share with us?

For interior walls, I always recommend applying an undercoat layer first (even by just using the same tin of paint). It really makes a difference to the finish of the wall once the second coat of paint has been applied. You will often hear me saying to customers “make sure you do multiple coats – just get the first one on as an undercoat, and you will see the results in the second coat”.

I also prefer and recommend using water based paints. Not only are they less toxic than oil-based paints, but they are also much easier to wash off your paint brushes and skin (simply accomplished with washing up liquid/soap and water).

What’s next for Community RePaint Cornwall?

We are keen to build our ‘scheme in a box’ idea, offering a community decorating box to local housing associations, householders, caravan homes, park homes, lodges and furniture paint projects. We are happy with our current premises, now of two years, and the community are too, due to parking, location and availability.

For more information about Community RePaint Cornwall, click here to view their scheme page.

Staff and volunteers from Community RePaint Highlands have been collecting paint that would otherwise have gone for disposal and redistributed it to individuals, charities and community groups at affordable prices to help brighten homes and community spaces.

New Start Highland creates social and environmental improvements within our local community through supporting people, delivering training opportunities and promoting re-use. They provide a range of services including housing support, employability training, furniture provision and mentoring. Additionally, they work within the local community to ensure that items that were potentially going to landfill instead find a new home with people in need.

The sheds, garages and cupboards of Scotland are holding enough colour to paint the town many times over. The Community RePaint scheme collects useable, leftover paint from businesses, retailers and paint manufacturers in the local area and in the past 10 years alone, the scheme has redistributed over 72,000 litres of leftover paint to local communities, saving money and brightening the lives in Inverness and surrounding communities.

“The aim of celebrating our birthday is not only to mark this important milestone, but also to raise awareness of the scheme locally so more people can benefit,” said Paint Trainer Scott Clelland. “Community RePaint Highlands offers a simple, local solution to the problem of waste paint. By reusing leftover paint in our community, we can bring a splash of colour to the lives of those who need it the most and help to protect the planet by preventing perfectly good paint from being disposed of.”

The UK wide Community RePaint network manager, Martin Pearse, reflected “Community RePaint Highlands have done a fantastic job over the last 15 years. The celebrations provide a great opportunity to recognise all the hard work that has gone into making the scheme such a success and to reflect on all their achievements which has brightened community spaces and homes over the years. We are excited to continue supporting the scheme and look forward to seeing what they accomplish in years to come.”

If you are a trader, manufacturer or retailer with leftover paint you can contact the scheme to find out how they can help you. Unfortunately, they cannot accept leftover paint from householders.

If you need paint to redecorate your home, or if you are a charity or community group in need of paint for a project, get in touch with Community RePaint Highlands to find out more 01463 715615 / scottclelland@newstarthighland.org. They are based at 9 Carsegate Road North, Inverness, Highlands, Scotland, IV3 8DU.