Painting the Town Greener

Tuesday, 1 August 2006, 10:16 am
Press Release: Resene

Resene is painting the town greener with the extension of the Resene PaintWise paint and paint packaging recovery program, the first comprehensive New Zealand product stewardship program for home decorators.

Following nearly five years of development, Be PaintWise was launched in 2004 by Resene to encourage paint users to minimise the effects of their decorating on the environment. Following a successful trial, a permanent Resene PaintWise service was launched in Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty in September 2005 providing 10 designated PaintWise Collection centres.

In mid July 2006, the service extended further to include five additional Resene ColorShops in Auckland and one in Hamilton. The Resene PaintWise Collection service has also become available to most South Island residents in August 2006 with the assistance of local South Island councils. Residents in all these areas can bring in unwanted paint and paint packaging, any brand, to one of the Resene ColorShops designated PaintWise Collection centres.

A PaintWise mobile truck service visits the stores, processing the materials received before returning to its depot. Good quality Resene paint is provided free to community groups, waterborne paint is used for other applications such as covering graffiti, solventborne paint goes through a solvent recovery program and metal packaging is recycled.

To date tens of thousands of paint containers and litres of paint have been returned through the Resene PaintWise service, with large volumes of paint provided free to a wide range of community groups.

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The Resene PaintWise service is being funded by Resene with implementation assistance from councils in each area it operates, the Ministry for the Environment and has been developed with 3R. The ongoing programme will be managed by the Resene Foundation charitable trust. The Resene Foundation is a non-profit foundation with the initial role of facilitating the PaintWise program and distributing any surplus resources to charitable purposes.

Resene provides financial assistance direct to The Resene Foundation supplemented by a PaintWise levy of 15c per litre on retail paint purchases and a small charge on non Resene cans and paint returned and trade returns. There is no charge at the time retail customers return Resene paint cans and product as these costs will be met by Resene and the PaintWise levy on purchases. All PaintWise levies and charges are collected by Resene ColorShops and passed on in full to The Resene Foundation to manage the Resene PaintWise program. These funds are used to help pay the considerable costs of running the service.

Resene’s managing director, Nick Nightingale, says the PaintWise idea was conceived in 1999 and is an extension of the company’s commitment to the development of environmentally friendlier products and practices.

“Fifty years ago, Resene turned the paint industry on its head with the development of New Zealand’s first waterborne paint. Since then we’ve achieved a milestone of 10 years of Environmental Choice certification and developed a highly successful environmental choice product range, but we never intended to stop there and PaintWise is testament to that,” he says.

“In New Zealand it’s estimated that just over six litres of paint per person is sold every year. That’s great for the industry, but apart from council-run services such as the Hazmobile, the disposal of old paint and paint containers is largely uncontrolled and the potential impact it could have on the environment is alarming.”

“A large percentage of our research and development budget is spent on developing waterborne products to replace solventborne ones, and the waterborne enamels that we pioneered in 1996 now easily outsell traditional enamels,” says Nick Nightingale.

“While waterborne products are considerably more expensive to produce than the solventborne ones, they’re offered to our customers at the same price to encourage them to purchase products that have less environmental impact.”

“Results show that demand continues to support Resene’s philosophy of providing products and services that combine environmental benefits with ease of use and performance,” he says.

Community groups can apply for donations of paint from the Resene PaintWise program online at www.resene.co.nz/paintwise.htm or complete and return the Community Paint Registration Form available from Resene ColorShops.

Residents keen to clean out cluttered garages and sheds can take unwanted paint and paint packaging to the following Resene ColorShops during normal opening hours:

Auckland
Albany, Cnr Tawa Drive and Rosedale Road, Ph: (09) 414 6500
Henderson, 30 Paramount Drive, Ph: (09) 836 2366
Manukau, Sharkey Street, Ph: (09) 262 1705
Mt Eden, 126 Valley Road, Ph: (09) 623 3950
Mt Roskill, 72 Carr Road, Ph: (09) 620 5714
New Lynn, 24 Clark Street, Ph: (09) 827 6877
Newmarket, Cnr Crowhurst and Teed Streets, Ph: (09) 529 4760
Onehunga, 260 Church Street, Ph: (09) 636 4105
Orewa, 39 Florence Street, Ph: (09) 427 9560
Panmure, 45A Mt Wellington Highway, Ph: (09) 570 4235
Pukekohe, 54 Seddon Street, Ph: (09) 237 1022
Takanini, Cnr 228 Great South and Glenora Roads, Ph: (09) 296 1959
Wairau Park, 8 Croftfield Lane, Ph: (09) 444 4387

Bay of Plenty
Tauranga, 47 Waihi Road, Ph: (07) 578 4169

Waikato
Hamilton, Cnr Anglesea, Hood and Knox Streets, Ph: (07) 839 9975
Te Rapa, 671 Te Rapa Road, Ph: (07) 850 5472

South Island
Addington, 351 Selwyn Street, Ph: (03) 338 1312
Ashburton, 327 Burnett Street, Ph: (03) 307 6510
Blenheim, Cnr McArtney and Redwood Streets, Ph: (03) 577 9200
Christchurch, 256 Cashel Street, Ph: (03) 366 7441
Dunedin, 172 Crawford Street, Ph: (03) 477 6566
Invercargill, 123 Yarrow Street, Ph: (03) 218 2385
Nelson, 75 Haven Road, Ph: (03) 548 7110
New Brighton, Cnr Oram Avenue and Beresford Street, Ph: (03) 388 8255
Oamaru, 190 Thames Street, Ph: (03) 433 1211
Shirley, 38 Marshland Road, Ph: (03) 385 5082
Timaru, 8 Elizabeth Street, Ph: (03) 688 4723
Tower Junction, Unit 8-9 Whiteleigh Ave, Ph: (03) 343 3990

In 2005, Resene PaintWise was awarded the ARC Environmental Business Leadership Award and a Packaging Council Award for Excellence for Environmentally Acceptable Packaging.

The Resene PaintWise service is being funded by Resene with implementation assistance from:
• (Auckland/Hamilton/Tauranga) - Auckland Regional Council, Auckland City Council, Environment Bay of Plenty, Environment Waikato, Franklin District Council, Manukau City Council, North Shore City Council, Papakura District Council, Rodney District Council, Tauranga City Council and Waitakere City Council;
• (South Island) – Ashburton District Council. Christchurch City Council, Dunedin City Council, Environment Canterbury, Environment Southland, Hurunui District Council, Kaikoura District Council, Mackenzie District Council, Marlborough District Council, Nelson City Council, Otago Regional Council, Selwyn District Council, Tasman District Council, Timaru District Council, Waimakiriri District Council, Waimate District Council, WasteNet;
and the Ministry for the Environment and has been developed with Responsible Resource Recovery (3R).

…ends

Resene

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