Turning Grey Into the New Green

Keeping material out of landfill isn’t just an ideal for Meta NZ and its staff; it’s their actual business.

Meta NZ was created by TerraNova (who operate Waste Exchange) to run the three EcoDepots (formerly known as refuse stations) in Christchurch. The EcoDepots have begun to recover recyclable material from the refuse pits, and have introduced several other initiatives (such as recycling leftover LPG gas brought into the recycling centres) to reduce waste.

Now the recycling staff themselves have come up with a new way to reuse old paint, and everything involved in the process is entirely recycled or reused. Recycling Supervisor Don Hammond and his staff have been experimenting with the paint recycling project for some time, but recently got it going full scale between the three EcoDepots. But before Don could get the operation going on a commercial scale he needed some resources, and thanks to being ‘in the know’, he knew Waste Exchange might just be the place to go. 

“I was desperate to find 20 litre buckets for the recycled paint we were producing” says Don. “I tried lots of outlets myself, such as bakeries and plasterers, but the most I could get were a few at a time. We needed at least 60, even up to150 per month, so I emailed Jim (Waste Exchange Co-Coordinator), and he came through with these old glue buckets from a local brewery.” 

Old paint of any colour that is dropped off at the EcoDepot recycling centres is mixed together. No matter what the component colours, the results are the same – ‘battleship grey’. The paint is mixed at EcoDepot Metro Place by staff members Joe and Dion. Everything goes into a 1000 litre drum (soon to be replaced by old milk vats) powered by motors taken from the scrap (e.g. fridge or washing machine motors). The motors tend to die out quickly, but fortunately there are always more on hand at the recycling centres. 

After the paint is mixed it is strained, then packaged into the cleaned plastic buckets, and sold on at a purely cost recovery basis at TerraNova’s SuperShed. “Really, we sell it on very cheap,” says Don “but the whole point is to be reusing these resources rather than dumping them. The whole operation uses recycled goods from start to finish.” 

The paint has been used on fences and skips at EcoDepot Metro Place. Christchurch City Council has also used some of the paint to cover over tagging and graffiti on bridges and fences, and large amounts have recently been sold to a mining operation in Greymouth, for use on fences and in the workshops. Twenty litre buckets are of the paint are for sale at SuperShed. 

Paint is poured

Then screened

The final product