COVID-19: PaintCare Impacts & Resources

As a public health precaution due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the recommendation of the CDC posted March 16 to limit discretionary travel, PaintCare advises that households and businesses consider refraining from dropping off paint for recycling at PaintCare locations until all applicable local, state, and federal public health orders and guidance have been lifted. The current status of PaintCare collections services follows:

• Many government-run household hazardous waste (HHW) programs are temporarily closing their year-round HHW facilities, postponing HHW drop-off events, or greatly reducing their hours. 
• While most paint stores remain open, some have reduced their hours or are otherwise changing operations to minimize physical contact with customers. Many of these stores have asked us to temporarily remove them from the PaintCare site locator at paintcare.org.
• PaintCare has cancelled its own paint drop-off events through June and intends to reschedule them as soon as possible after government restrictions are lifted.
• PaintCare’s pickup service for large volumes of paint (200+ gallons) is temporarily unavailable. Customers submitting requests will be contacted by PaintCare staff and informed about the service being temporarily unavailable and that PaintCare will notify them again when the service resumes.

If You Do Plan to Drop Off Paint for Recycling

If you do plan to take leftover paint to a drop-off location for recycling, take precautions:

• Contact PaintCare drop-off sites in advance to confirm hours and availability before arriving.
• Follow the CDC’s recommendations for protecting yourself and others from the spread of COVID-19, which can be found at cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention.html. These include guidance on frequent hand washing, avoiding close contact with others, and other protective measures.
• Do not visit PaintCare sites if you are sick or if you are at higher risk from severe illness. Find the CDC’s guidance on this at cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html.