Grace & Favor – A Life Worth Living

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Another "Who Knew".  Its been pretty quiet here on my blog for the past few weeks as I've been busy with a project and very busy at church.  In working on my current project I realized just how many gallon cans of old paint I had stored in the basement.  I decided it was time to purge.


I went on line to see what sort of disposal options I had in our county that complied with the environmental laws.  My best option was KITTY LITTER.  According to the on line article I could dispose of the paint  through my local trash hauler by doing the following:

First order of business was to buy a bag of kitty litter. What I purchased was enough to do many many gallons of paint so I would suggest starting with a smaller bag unless you have kitties in the house.  The cheapest stuff you can find will work.


I dumped enough kitty litter into each gallon to mix into the paint so there was no liquid left showing.  I mixed it up with a garden trowel until it was the consistency of oatmeal.  The directions said to leave it sit with the lid off for 12 to 24 hours. You'll want to make sure you put this somewhere that the kids and animals won't be curious enough to get into it.


 The next morning the paint was hard as a rock and ready for disposal.  The instructions also indicated that you should leave the lids off when placing the cans into your trash can so that the hauler will know you had complied with the required method.  If you've got old paint cans sitting around check with your county/parish and see if this method is acceptable for disposal. 

Now the workshop is rid of half a dozen cans of old paint and I can continue with my current project.  More to follow on that in the next few days.





9 comments:

Dawn said...

That is exactly how I dispose of old paint. Sand will also work if you have a free pile on hand like I do. Great tip:)

NanaDiana said...

I sooo need to do this. I have some really old paint that needs to go. Great idea. Diana

Yvonne @ StoneGable said...

This is a fabulous post! A real public service message for all of us! I have so many cans of paint in my basement and at a loss for how to get rid of lthem. This will be my hubbies project this summer.
I could just kiss you!!!!! Thanks for a great, helpful post!!!!!

Entertaining Women said...

Thanks! Who knew? Excited to see your project. Cherry Kay

On Crooked Creek said...

Miss Char,
Who Knew, indeed...and we need to know as we changed the exterior color of our home and have a 'wee' bit of paint from the last color!!! Thanks for this worthwhile tip!
Fondly,
Pat

Designs on 47th Street said...

Char, this is SO good to know. Thank you for telling us this great tip. Sounds like a lot of work, but worth it!
Donna

Debbie said...

FANTASTIC tip!! We have some that we need to get rid of too. This is so very timely for me to read. We keep kitty litter on hand anyway because we use it for oil spills from the daughter's clunker of a car. (Aptly, named "Flo".)

Marlis said...

Thank you for sharing this. I never knew how to do this properly. I understand busy, so many tugs in all directions right now. Thank you so much for dropping in and visiting. be blessed, xo marlis

Nancy's Notes said...

Great and clever idea! Who knew, is right! I need to do that soon~