Minnesota

Professional painting contractors are one of the groups most affected by PaintCare. If you are a painting contractor, please review the information below to learn more about PaintCare, the fees, and paint recycling services available from PaintCare.

As required by state law, a paint stewardship assessment (“PaintCare Fee”) must be added by manufacturers to the wholesale price of all architectural paint sold in the state. This fee is paid by manufacturers to PaintCare to fund setting up drop-off sites for leftover, postconsumer paint, and for the transportation, recycling, and proper disposal of that paint. The fees also pay for consumer education and program administrative costs. The fees are based on container size as follows:

Important Note:

It is expected that contractors will pass the fees on to their customers in order to recoup the fees they pay on the product. When estimating jobs, contractors should take these fees into account by checking with your suppliers to make sure the quotes for paint products include the fees. You should also let your customers know that you will be including these fees in your quotes.

Retail drop-off sites provide a convenient and no cost recycling option for painting contractors and other businesses. Businesses that generate less than 220 pounds of hazardous waste* per month will be able to use these sites to recycle all program products (both water and oil-based) with some restrictions on quantities per month. Businesses that generate more than 220 pounds of hazardous waste per month may use the drop-off sites for their water-based program products only; they are not able to use the sites for oil-based paint or other solvent-based products. Some businesses may also have more total accumulated paint (water and oil-based) than an individual retail drop-off site can handle (most of these sites limit customers to 5 gallons per day). In these cases, businesses should contact the store ahead of time to see if they are able to accept more paint, or contact the nearest county household hazardous waste facility that will accept business paint waste. To find a county that accepts business paint waste, use the links below:

• In greater Minnesota, you can find your county’s contact on the opens in a new window Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s website.
• Use our PaintCare Site Locator to find the county facility nearest you.

If you have 200 gallons or more of total accumulated paint, please see the section below on Large Volume Pickups for direct collection options from your business.

*220 pounds is about 20-30 gallons of paint. When counting how much hazardous waste you generate in a month, oil-based paint counts (because by law it is a hazardous waste), but latex and other water-based paint does not count toward the 220 pound monthly total.

Information for painting contractors is available in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali.

English

Spanish

Somali

Hmong

Let your customers know that you are a paint drop-off location!  Visit our Drop-Off Site Promotion Toolkit for artwork for digital advertising, social media, or print advertising.

You can also order free point-of-sale (POS) materials or signage for your business or organization.

• Drop-Off Site Promotion Toolkit. Use these digital and print ad templates to promote your store as a PaintCare drop-off site on a website, in social media, or in a print newspaper or other publication.
• Order signs and point-of-sale materials.
• Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Retail drop-off sites must maintain required records for three years. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the state oversight agency, has the right to inspect these records to ensure compliance with the Paint Stewardship Law. Specifically, drop off sites must provide access to the following records:

• Employee training logs for the PaintCare program. Download the training log here.
• Shipping documents provided to the retailer by PaintCare’s contracted transporter.
• VSQG logbooks for businesses dropping off oil-based paints. To obtain a logbook, please contact spincuspy@paint.org.

Not a drop-off site, but are interested in becoming one? Please see the information in the Partnering with PaintCare section at the bottom of this page.

The Minnesota Paint Stewardship Law requires retailers of paint to (a) include the PaintCare Fee in the retail price of program products and (b) only sell products registered with the program. More details are provided here:

a. Add PaintCare Fee: Manufacturers must add the PaintCare Fees to their wholesale price of each container of paint. Retailers must ensure these fees are passed down to their consumers. Fees are by container size as follows:

b. Sell Registered Brands: Retailers must make sure that they do not sell unregistered brands of architectural paint. Retailers can verify the registration of manufacturers and brands using the following lists which are updated regularly. If you are a retailer and do not see a manufacturer or brand of paint sold in your store on this list, please contact PaintCare at (855) 726-6809.

• Manufacturers Registered for Minnesota
• Brands Registered for Minnesota

Brochures and other printed materials are available to retailers and facilities at no charge.
Order additional materials online, or place an order by calling PaintCare at (855) 724-6809 or by sending a completed form by email, fax, or regular mail.

• Order Form for Brochures and Other Printed Materials (PDF) Also available in Word

The following materials are available:

• Program Brochure (“Recycle with PaintCare”)
• Mini Card (Find a paint drop-off site) available in Spanish
• Fact Sheet: Painting Contractor. This document is helpful for retailers to explain the program to their customers who are painting contractors in advance of the program so that they can be prepared to incorporate fees into future job estimates.
• Fact Sheet: Large Volume Pick-Up Service, available in Spanish
• General Poster for Retailers This poster is intended for use in stores in the paint department or near the cash registers to help explain the PaintCare program and Fees to customers.
• Leftover Paint Receipt Form Use this receipt if someone dropping off paint asks for one. (Some county or city inspectors ask businesses to show receipts to demonstrate that they disposed or recycled of their paint.)

• Fact Sheet: Paint Retailers Informs all paint retailers in Minnesota of their responsibilities under the paint stewardship program.
• Fact Sheet: Paint Reuse Stores Informs all reuse stores of their responsibilities under the paint stewardship program.
• Fact Sheet: PaintCare Fees Answers to common questions from retailers about fees.

PaintCare welcomes partnerships with municipal agencies, especially those that operate household hazardous waste collection programs, landfills, and transfer stations. PaintCare covers the cost of paint storage bins, paint transportation and recycling, and public outreach and education. There is no monetary compensation for operations or labor costs associated with serving as a drop-off site. To learn more, please see the following fact sheets and interest forms.

For municipal agencies that wish to offer services to PaintCare in addition to serving as a drop-off site, monetary compensation may be negotiated. These services include reprocessing paint at your site, bulking paint in situations where storage space is limited, offering usable paint in original containers to the public (“Reuse Program”), and transportation from municipal-owned satellite locations (e.g., landfills) to a main site.

Read more about becoming a PaintCare drop-off location:

• Fact Sheet for HHW Programs. If you would like to partner with PaintCare, please fill out our  opens in a new windowOnline HHW Program Interest Form (or use the Word or PDF version and send by email, fax or regular mail).
• Fact Sheet for Transfer Stations, Landfills and Recycling Centers. If you would like to partner with PaintCare, please fill out our opens in a new windowOnline Interest Form (or use the Word or PDF version and send by email, fax or regular mail).

Watch our video about becoming a PaintCare drop-off location:

If you are already a PaintCare partner you can order PaintCare signs for your location, click here for a Sign Order Form.

Municipalities that have contracts with PaintCare may request partial funding for pre-approved joint outreach activities with PaintCare to promote PaintCare drop-off sites and events. Past projects have included newspaper advertising, direct mail, and radio campaigns. For details, please read the following fact sheet.

• Fact Sheet: Joint Outreach Projects
• Proposal Form (Word). Form also available as PDF

PaintCare encourages household hazardous waste programs, reuse stores and others to operate paint reuse programs (i.e., swap shops or exchanges). Reuse programs return good quality unused paint to the local community at low or no cost. Reuse is a preferred method of waste management. To encourage reuse, PaintCare will compensate paint drop-off sites operating a reuse program under a contract with PaintCare.

• Fact Sheet: Reuse Pricing

PaintCare prepares an annual report for the 12 months ending June 30. The first report for Minnesota covers 8 months because the program started in November 2014.

• Annual Report 2020 (July 2019 – June 2020)
• On January 29, 2021, PaintCare hosted a public webinar to review its 2020 Annual Report. opens in a new windowClick here to view the webinar.
• Annual Report 2019 (July 2018 – June 2019)
• Annual Report 2018  (July 2017 – June 2018)
• Annual Report 2017  (July 2016 – June 2017)
• Annual Report 2016  (July 2015 – June 2016)
• Annual Report 2015  (November 2014 – June 2015)

This plan describes the operations, outreach, and other activities for the Minnesota Paint Stewardship Program.

• Minnesota Paint Stewardship Program Plan (November 2014)

The Minnesota paint stewardship program is required by Minnesota Paint Product Stewardship Law (2013).

• Latex Paint Recovery in Minnesota: Paint Composition Analysis & Market/End-Use Study (December 19, 2018)

The oversight agency for the Minnesota paint stewardship program is the opens in a new windowMinnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

The Minnesota Department of Revenue has provided an explanation of why the PaintCare Fee is subject to state sales tax in the following letter:

• Letter regarding Minnesota Sales Tax (March 18, 2014)