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Promising Plastics and Paints

Posted on 16. Dec, 2010 by Jennifer Marcus Newton in Greener Properties

The arrival of winter changes the rhythm of a Midwestern household ever so slightly. Outside projects, like gardening, move inside and take the form of nearly forgotten efforts to replace a vintage light fixture, paint a room or repair cracked plaster. One room of our home still sports painter’s tape where the walls meet the ceiling from a stalled project that started several years ago. I’m not proud of this. It’s just a fact: When warm weather returns to a cold region, whatever indoor projects were in motion simply stop. We’re seasonal that way.

It was on a recent wickedly cold evening that my husband and I bundled up and headed to a large home-improvement store. We’d selected our first round of winter projects and needed to pick up a few last-minute items to get started. Before we’d made our way past the holiday decorations, we made two interesting discoveries.

One: No-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint selections are increasingly easy to find in mainstream home-improvement stores. For years, I’ve been shopping at specialty paint stores for low-VOC options because that was where I initially found them. I don’t paint often enough to warrant up-to-the-minute research on the subject—I know where to go to get what I want when I need a new color. There’s a certain comfort in knowing that I don’t have to deal with raised eyebrows at the mention of “VOC” or worse, no “VO-what?”

So I was a little surprised to hear my husband ask the clerk at the paint counter if he had any no-or low-VOC options. Without missing a beat, we were ushered to a section of paints to browse. The clerk explained that the base paint was a no-VOC paint, but the color we added to it would contain a very small amount of VOCs. Impressed with his know-how, we picked a color for our long-overdue kitchen remodel. While the clerk mixed our Mediterranean blue, I mused about the demand for low- or no-VOC paints increasing enough to become one of the primary offerings in the paint section at a major retailer.

Two: While waiting for our very-low-VOC paint, we browsed nearby aisles and made another interesting discovery. Painting tools, as well, now come in a lovely new shade of green. A company called Earth Plastic (a Division of American Trade Products) produces a line of plastic drip catchers, pour spouts, roller trays and more that are recyclable and biodegradable. Intrigued, we bought a large paint roller tray for well under $3 (and five cents cheaper than its old-school counterpart).

Here’s how the company describes its plastic product line:

“Earth Plastic™ is a breakthrough material that is biodegradable, recyclable and made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. Unlike traditional plastics which never biodegrade, Earth Plastic™ contains a proprietary blend of additives that enables microorganisms to break down the molecular structure of the plastic into humus-like material that is not harmful to the environment. We always encourage consumers to recycle; however, if Earth Plastic™ products are disposed of in a landfill, those products will biodegrade in approximately two to five years depending on temperature, moisture and other conditions.”

Market demand is an impressively powerful force, and it’s not always for the good of the planet. But in the case of a small thing like a paint roller tray or a less toxic paint, things are looking better. And so is my kitchen.

Sometimes it’s the small things that have the greatest impact.

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Tags: Eco Friendly, Energy Efficient, environmentally conscious, Green Living, Real Estate