Paint

WME Magazine

With Australia's craze for home renovation, we are going through paint by the truckload. In 2003, almost 124 million litres of paint was manufactured in Australia. What are the environmental implications of changing colours?
The ingredients in paint are a well-kept secret. Most paint manufacturers will only divulge the four broad categories of ingredients: pigments, solvents, resin or binder, and other additives. Colour comes from the pigment, which is usually a mineral (such as Fe203 for red, Ti02 for white) or a complex organic molecule (such as dioxazine violet for purple). The solvent and resin/binder provide the base for the pigment. In enamel paints the solvent is a hydrocarbon, while in water-based paints it is mostly water.
The remaining additives, usually some kind of hydrocarbon, are used for purposes such as controlling drying, as in preservatives or thickeners, preventing mildew formation in damp houses or to aid in the formation of the resin film.

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All these components - as many as 40 separate materials in· some paints - are extracted from the earth's crust. Most of the pigment materials are mined, while the others are usually refined from crude oil. Some paint manufacturers have begun replacing the resins in enamel paint with alkyds sourced from vegetable oils and there are also 'natural paint' manufacturers who use ingredients such as beeswax and milk proteins.
While determining what goes in paint is highly complex, making it is relatively simple. The ingredients are added to a mixer in the right order, stirred in and then packaged into steel cans. The paint shop is then supplied with cans of base paint and of tinter, a concentrate of the pigment that is added to the base according t.o a customer's colour preference.
Paint is environmentally advantageous in that it protects wood or metal surfaces from decay, reducing resource use and the generation of building waste. It also has negative impacts. The greatest of these occurs during application, with enamel paints in particular releasing volatile organic compounds as the solvents evaporate and the paint dries. This can give rise to 'Painter's Syndrome', which has been known to affect the central nervous system of professional decorators. In Europe it is estimated three per cent of total VOC emissions come from paint. One leading paint manufacturer estimates the lifecycle impact of painting 100 m² with enamel paint every seven years for 40 years would include release of up to 12 kg of VOCs, 171 kg of CO₂ and generate a similar amount of waste.' It would need just 2,360 MJ but would also contribute 2.3 kg of acid-forming SO₄
The impacts don't end with a coloured wall. DIY home decorators, despite the best educative efforts of councils, EPAs and paint companies, often wash their brushes in the sink or over a drain, sending diluted paint into waterways. Similarly, half-empty cans are sent to landfill, causing toxins to leach into the soil and groundwater. Recent programs such as Victoria's 'Paintback' trial aim to collect leftover paint. This not only pulls steel cans out of the waste stream, but also sees the paint reused, commonly on public property where specific colour is less vital.

Choose one phrase from the list of phrases (A-J) to complete each sentence (1-8) below. There are more phrases than sentences, so you will not use them all.

1. environmental benefits.
2. paint-related waste.
3. animal products.
4. the components of paint.
5. a serious health problem.
6. landfill.
7. deciding its ingredients.
8. paint companies.
9. enamel.
10. the earth.

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1. Paint companies are reluctant to reveal
2. Paint additives generally come from
3. Producing paint is considerably easier than
4. While it releases dangerous chemicals, paint also has
5. A career as a painter can lead to
6. Water-based paint presents fewer dangers than
7. Home painters often ignore the advice of
8. The scheme in Victoria is trying to reduce