Rhode Island

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. Larger businesses (those 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.

*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.

If you have a large amount of unwanted paint, PaintCare offers a service that benefits both you and our volunteer drop-off sites — you don’t have to take your paint to a drop-off site a little at a time, and they don’t get overwhelmed with large volumes of paint. This free service is only available to households or businesses with at least 200 gallons of paint. To learn more, please review the following fact sheet. Then call PaintCare to request an appointment.

Large Volume Pick-Up Service Fact Sheet

Find out how the service works and how to request a pick-up.

LVP Fact Sheet
Also in Spanish

LVP Form to Request a Pick Up

Please use our new online form to request a pick up. Must be a minimum of 200 gallons:

LVP Form (Online)

You can also use the excel or PDF versions of the form and send by e-mail, fax or regular mail:

LVP Form (Excel) 
LVP Form (PDF) 

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

English

Portuguese

Spanish

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

PaintCare provides exempt generator certification forms to drop-off sites to be signed by all businesses and organizations that drop off oil-based paint or other solvent based program products. Signing the form is not necessary for those with only latex or water based program products. The form was updated in August 2017 due to changes to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Download the current form here: Exempt Generator Certification Form

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 Rhode Island Paint Stewardship Law requires retailers of paint to include the PaintCare Fee in the sale price of program products and only sell products registered with the program. (Retailers may also volunteer to become a drop-off site – see fact sheet below). More details are provided here:

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

b. Sell Registered Brands: Retailers must make sure they do not sell unregistered architectural paint brands. 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 these lists, please contact PaintCare at (855) 726-6809.

• Registered Manufacturers
• Registered Brands

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. Also in Word.

The following materials are available:

• Program Brochure (“Recycle with PaintCare”). Also Available in Spanish
• Mini Card (Find a paint drop-off site). Also available in Spanish.
• Fact Sheet: Painting Contractors This fact sheet was developed at the request of retailers to help explain the program to their customers who are painting contractors. Some retailers have found it useful to send this to regular customers with monthly statements.
• 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. Also available in Spanish.

• Fact Sheet: Paint Retailers (General Program Information). This fact sheet was mailed to all paint retailers in Rhode Island in the spring of 2014 to inform them 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 sheet and interest form. 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 (“Waste Exchange”), and transportation from municipal-owned satellite locations to a main site. Read more about becoming a PaintCare drop-off location:

• Fact Sheet for Transfer Stations. If you would like to partner with PaintCare, please fill out our Online 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 prepares an annual report for the 12 months ending June 30. The first report for Rhode Island covers 13 months because the program started a month early.

• 2018 Annual Report (July 2017 – June 2018)
• On January 17, 2019, PaintCare hosted a public webinar to review the most recent Annual Reports for its programs in Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and provide an update on program activities. A recording of the webinar is available here.
• 2017 Annual Report (July 2016 – June 2017)
• 2016 Annual Report (July 2015 – June 2016)
• 2015 Annual Report (June 2014 – June 2015)

PaintCare’s program plan for Rhode Island was approved on March 20, 2014. The original version (March 3) was revised and resubmitted on May 14. This plan describes the operations, outreach, and other activities of the Rhode Island Paint Stewardship Program:

• Rhode Island Paint Stewardship Program Plan (May 14, 2014)

The Rhode Island program is a result of Senate Bill 2083A, Proper Management of Unused Paint, passed in 2012 and signed by Governor Lincoln Chafee.

• Rhode Island Paint Product Stewardship Law (2012)

The Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) evaluated the effects of the PaintCare program on household hazardous waste (HHW) programs in five states that implemented paint stewardship prior to September 2014: California, Connecticut, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. This report summarizes PSI’s findings from the cross-state evaluation.

• Paint Stewardship: Effect on Household Hazardous Waste Programs (December 2015)

The state oversight agency for the Rhode Island program is the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is the agency overseeing implementation of the new law.

• Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM)
• Press Release about passage of law (DEM, June 2012)